Concrete Angel
by Rottweiler7692
Summary: During winter break in Bayport, a classmate asks the Hardys' help in finding her sister's murderer. Little does Joe know he is going to encounter an important defining moment in his life among the twists and turns this case throws out.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Concrete Angel

Author: Rottweiler7692

Rating: T

Warnings: mentions of child and alcohol abuse, a little swearing

Summary: After a tough bout of winter finals at Bayport High, the Hardys are ready for a relaxing winter break with no cases. What they don't expect, as usual, is for a case to find them. How can they turn down a classmate in need of help, especially a pretty one who wants them to find her sister's murderer? Little does Joe know that he is about to encounter an important defining moment in his life among the twists and turns this case throws out.

Notes: Thanks to Alaina, my amazing beta, and Josie, who was always there to bounce ideas off of. Without them, this definitely would not be possible.

The author does not support violence or abuse of any kind

Another note: This story has been completely finished and edited and I am posting it at regular intervals. I hope that this will encourage people to continue reading and reviewing it.

* * *

Chapter 1 Prologue

Seventeen-year-old Joe Hardy peered over the edge of the large cardboard box he was hiding behind. Dressed completely in black, he blended in well with the interior of the dark warehouse. Hearing a skittering noise, he quickly ducked down again behind the box. He stayed down for a minute, then after hearing nothing more, he got up and crept toward the back of the warehouse. He held a taser gun at his side and his black rubber treaded athletic shoes kept his footsteps silent.

A solitary chair sat in a cleared out space near the end of the warehouse. The chair had its back to Joe and he could just barely make out the figure of a girl with her hands tied to the back of the chair. From what Joe could tell by the way the girl was still and silent, she was probably gagged as well as bound.

"Hey, are you okay?" he whispered as he crouched behind another group of large storage boxes. All he got in return was silence. "I'm coming. I'll have you out soon," Joe whispered again. He knew that there was a slim chance that the girl would be able to hear him judging from the distance between the two. Joe stealthily crept closer to the girl, ducking behind boxes every now and then. His senses seemed to be on overdrive from all the adrenaline rushing to his head. He could feel everything. All his focus was on the bound and gagged figure in the chair.

Suddenly, a large figure seemed to dart out of nowhere when Joe was about fifteen feet from the girl. Joe jumped and brought the taser up, but it was all the time the dark figure needed. He spun the chair around causing indignant squeaks from the gagged victim and revealed an ashen girl with a knife to the side of her neck. The slivers of sunlight streaming through a dingy skylight overheard caught the girl's face in an angle, darkening her contours and making shadows under her eyes and along the side of her face.

"Make a move and she dies," the man warned. Joe could make out several tattoos along the man's bulging arms that his tight, dirty t-shirt did nothing to hide.

_Thud, thud, thud. _Joe's heart rate picked up from the uneasy uneven beat it had been playing. Nonetheless, he composed himself and forced himself to give off the impression that he was in control. All the training he'd been given by his father hadn't been for nothing. He let out a breath he'd been unaware of holding and silently cursed himself for not checking more carefully. How come nothing ever went the way that was planned anymore? He slowly lowered his taser down to the ground, holding his hands above his head. "Okay, okay. Just lowering my weapon…"

The girl suddenly gave a muffled squeal. When the man glanced down at her and his knife arm wavered, Joe took his chance. He quickly scooped up his taser from the ground and sprinted closer to be able to get a better shot and be one hundred percent sure he wouldn't hit the victim by accident. He kicked the knife out of the man's hand, then followed up with a kick to the solar plexus. The man grunted and crumpled down to the ground on his hands and knees.

Seizing the opportunity, Joe shot him with the taser. With a jerk, the man stilled, unconscious. Joe held his weapon ready for another moment to ensure that the man was truly down and out for the count. When he was finally sure that the man wouldn't be coming back for more, Joe lowered the taser gun.

As he put the gun on the ground and moved towards the chair that the girl was still being held captive in, Joe locked eyes with her. Something clicked into place and Joe felt as if a favorite worn baseball glove had been eased onto his hand again after a long time. He knew. He knew that he would be doing this for the rest of his life. Saving people. From the monsters on the streets and the demons that killed them on the inside. The ones that devoured the victims' innards until they couldn't stand it anymore and searched for help and release.

Joe gently ungagged the captive and then began working on the knots. "Thank you," she whispered hoarsely after the gag had come out.

As his hand brushed hers, something made him look into her eyes again. Buried deep in the green hazel depths were more overpowering sentiments than could be conveyed with the two simple words that had already been filled with many emotions.

And Joe knew that he was her savior. He hadn't only saved her life from the man who was going to slit her throat; he had also saved her from the men in her life who had let her down. He had set her free by his faith in her. His faith in the potential she had inside as a human being. He'd believed in her and so he was the one responsible for the tears brimming in her eyes that refused to fall. Only this time, they were shining from gratitude.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:_ Two weeks earlier_

_They say there comes a moment in everyone's life that defines them. It defines who they are and who they're going to be for the rest of their lives. For some people, that moment came at an early age. For others, they waited years and years until it finally came to them. Joe Hardy had two defining moments in his life. _

_Sure, you're thinking Joe already knew what he wanted to become at a young age. He wanted to be a detective like his father. And sure, you're thinking that Joe's defining moment was when his girlfriend Iola was killed by terrorists; leading him to become passionate about taking down terrorists along with criminals. And surely you're thinking Joe's saved lots of girls before. But this time was different. You see, this girl was special. _

_Long light brown hair and green eyes. But her looks weren't what mattered the most. It was her inner spirit; the inner strength and beauty that overlay the outer toughness. You see, this girl once again changed Joe's outlook at the world. She made him understand that saving the innocents was every bit as important as putting the criminals behind bars. Joe couldn't make it in time to save his girlfriend; he could only take revenge on the terrorists. This time, he was able to save an innocent soul. _

_You could say it all started when the Hardys' van broke down. Of course, this was two weeks before "the moment" but it's the little things that lead up to the big ones…_

Frank and Joe were waiting for the tow truck to arrive at the front entrance of their school, Bayport High. The boys had been meaning to fix the van but their schoolwork had gotten the better of them. The week of finals before winter break had been rapidly approaching and the teachers had been giving them loads of homework to prepare. Because of this, the boys' friends had already gone home to study.

"Hey, did you see Biff's new car?" Joe asked, his eyes lighting up as he turned to his brother.

"No, but I'm guessing you have," Frank replied, returning a knowing glance to Joe.

"Yup, it's a Corvette, pretty awesome," Joe said excitedly. "I might get one someday."

"What about the Porsche you were saving up for?" Frank queried, remembering just a couple weeks ago when Joe had announced during dinner that he was tired of driving the van around and wanted something smaller… and faster.

"Oh yeah. Hmm, I think I'll get both but mostly use the Chevy… or maybe the Porsche… actually, I should get a Ferrari… hmm…"

Frank just shook his head. Before he could change the subject, something caught the elder boy's eyes. Joe had been pacing back and forth in front of the huge pillars in front of the school while Frank had been leaning against one which was why Frank noticed first.

"Joe, look." Frank grabbed his brother's arm and pointed with his other hand. Joe immediately stopped pacing and stood still as the brothers surveyed the scene.

"Let go of me!" Rachel West, a classmate of theirs, was struggling to get away from her boyfriend who was in his car.

"C'mon, let's go," Joe motioned to his brother. The brothers moved up to the curb.

"I told you that we broke up, Adam. We're not seeing each other anymore. You don't have the right to boss me around," Rachel told her ex-boyfriend sharply. Her eyes flashed angrily.

"Hey man, why don't you leave her alone?" Joe asked as the Hardys advanced upon Rachel and Adam.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Adam shot back. But despite his words, he released his ex-girlfriend and she jerked her arm back.

"Shut up and don't ever follow me again," Rachel told Adam in a tone that was nothing short of livid.

"Geez, fine, don't be such a baby," Adam muttered as he drove out of the parking lot, tires squealing.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked Rachel, giving her a once over.

"Seemed like you handled that fine by yourself," Joe added. "What's your boyfriend's problem, anyway?"

"I'm fine and he's not my boyfriend. We broke up but it doesn't seem be to be going through his thick skull." Rachel sighed and tossed her golden hair. Joe stared.

Catching his brother's stare, Frank elbowed him sharply. "_Vanessa_?" he mouthed.

Joe rolled his eyes and nodded in an exaggerated way. Rachel stared at the ground, oblivious to the brothers' silent conversation.

Rachel massaged her sweatshirt clad arm where Adam had been holding her as if she was unaware of doing so. When she looked up again she seemed to have regained her composure.

"Hard Econ test, huh?" Rachel asked Joe in a casual tone as if she hadn't just been riled by her ex-boyfriend.

"Oh yeah, I had to ask for a retake," Joe replied. He was a little taken aback, as was Frank, that Rachel had gone from angry to nonchalant in seconds but quickly masked his surprise.

"Rachel, what happened with Adam?" Frank asked gently.

"I told you. He's just a jerk," Rachel said dismissively.

"Do you have a ride?" Joe asked. He sensed that they weren't going to get Rachel to talk anymore about her ex-boyfriend.

"Um, yeah. My dad was supposed to pick me up. Guess he forgot." After looking up at the Hardys' faces, she added, "Adam used to drive me home."

"How're you going to get home?" Joe asked. "We'd offer you a ride but our van isn't working,"

"I'll probably walk," Rachel answered.

"Really? Where do you live?"

"Oh, near Bayport U."

"Isn't that pretty far?"

"Yeah, well, what're you gonna do?" Rachel asked with an unconcerned smile. "See you around. Good luck with the quiz tomorrow," she told Joe.

"Bye Rachel," the Hardy boys chorused, watching Rachel begin walking out of the parking lot and down the street.

"Do you know Rachel well?" Frank asked his brother after Rachel was out of sight.

"Well, she's in my Econ class. Other than that, I know nothing about her," Joe replied. "Oh no wait. Didn't her sister die a while ago?"

"Yeah, it was in the news. Rachel must be devastated. The news article also said that she lost her mother when she was younger and she lives with her dad."

Joe hunched over and stuck his hands back in his pocket. "That's awful. But don't you have a feeling that there was more than she was telling about Adam? And just now when she was talking about her dad?"

"Just because you like her doesn't mean she has something you need to investigate."

"I don't like her," Joe said unconvincingly.

"Uh huh, right. That's why you were staring at her."

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was n… well, she _is_ attractive," Joe admitted. "But I never really noticed her before."

"Suuure."

"No, really."

"Well, she is pretty," Frank admitted.

"Ha! I told you!" Joe exclaimed triumphantly. "Anyway, whatever. It doesn't matter." He shivered again as the wind picked up. "What's taking the tow truck so long, anyway?" he wondered aloud.

"I dunno, wish it would hurry up. I've got a lot of studying to do." Then, a moment later, Frank added to his brother, "Would you stop pacing? You're making me dizzy."

"It's warmer this way," Joe insisted. "You should try it."

"I'm not that cold. Besides, I have more layers on than you," Frank pointed out.

"True," Joe replied. He paused his pacing and moved to stand beside his brother. The two lapsed into companionable silence.

The tow truck soon arrived to take the black van to the auto repair shop. On the way, the Hardys passed Rachel.

But they didn't notice the unshed tears shining in her eyes or the way she rubbed her sleeve covered arm as she slowly made the long trudge to her house.

Nobody did.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Okay, with the addition of that last formula, my brain is officially overflowing," Chet Morton, one of the Hardys' long time friends, announced. The Hardys along with a couple of their friends were having a study session in one of the public library's study rooms.

"Shut it," Joe shoved him playfully. "My brain overloaded a long time ago."

"We all know that," Frank interjected with a grin. His chocolate brown eyes twinkled mischievously as he twirled his pencil between his fingers.

Joe stretched his arms over his head and stood up. His back cracked loudly, protesting the long hours of just sitting. He wasn't used to sitting still for so long. It didn't agree with his body. "I'm going to get a drink of water. Be right back." The others nodded but didn't look up from their work.

Joe exited the room, letting the door slowly swing closed behind him. He walked past the rows of books towards the water fountain near the entrance of the library. The flashy design of the newest model muscle car portrayed on the cover of a magazine caught his eye and he paused beside the magazine rack to glance at it.

Hearing the soft sound of pages rustling, he peered over the magazine rack to see a partially concealed table in between the rack and a fake potted plant. Seated at the small table poring over a stack of books, the titles mostly obscured by her head and arm, was Rachel. She didn't notice Joe watching her due to the earbuds of her iPod plugged in her ears.

"Rachel?" Joe spoke her name softly so as not to startle her. Even so, she jumped in surprise. While she yanked the earbuds out of her ears with one hand, she unobtrusively shifted the books she had been looking at so that their titles were covered with her arm and a textbook.

Joe kept his eyes on her face though her movements didn't escape his attention. His detective senses were screaming inside his head that she didn't want him to see the titles of those books so out of the corner of his eye, he quickly studied the books that Rachel had yet to cover.

He could discern two titles; one titled _Child Abuse_ and the other _Teen Alcoholism_. A bit surprised at these titles, Joe pretended not to have seen the books. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said with an easy grin.

"You didn't _scare_ me… just startled me a little," Rachel replied with a slightly reserved smile. Joe translated it to her shyness. She pocketed her iPod while giving a fleeting look at the table to make sure that the titles of the books were safely concealed.

Rachel's apprehension didn't escape Joe. He remembered the drills his father had given him and Frank; sleuthing 101. One of the first rules was how to tell if someone was lying. _Rachel wouldn't make the best criminal_, Joe mused. "Hey, do you want to come and study with us?" he invited aloud. He leaned against a nearby supporting pillar, put his hands in his pockets, and studied her. "Me, Frank, and a couple others?"

"Oh no, that's okay," Rachel declined with a shake of her head. "I like it here."

Looking around at the small, out of sight area, Joe questioned, "Here?"

"Well, not here exactly." Rachel's face began to flush and she wondered what Joe thought about her. "But it's quiet."

"It's a _library_." Joe emphasized the last word with an amused grin.

"Still." Rachel blushed deeper and she hoped Joe wouldn't notice. He pretended not to so he wouldn't embarrass her further.

"I'd better be getting back." Joe pulled himself away from his support. "If you ever want to study Econ together, call me. Number's in the directory."

"Okay." Rachel's face glowed.

"Now I'd better go back or else they'll think I've ditched them to do something more exciting," Joe said with another lazy smile. "Which I sort of did. Talking to you is much more interesting than cramming a bunch of random equations in my head," he said with a wink before waving and proceeding to go get the drink of water he'd intended to have.

Rachel watched him leave. His black Converse sneakers made no noise against the carpeted floor as he sauntered to the water fountain.

_Joe's so unlike Adam_, Rachel mused. When Adam walked, he swaggered in a proud way. As if he owned the place. He also dragged his boots on the ground without picking up his feet when he walked so they made the most annoying scraping noises on the ground even though he knew it irritated his girlfriend.

Adam thought he owned her. But Joe would never do a thing to hurt her. Or so she thought. Maybe he took drugs to make him so perfect at school but he had mood swings when he wasn't in public. Or maybe at night, Joe was a serial killer. Nobody would suspect him; Fenton Hardy's son with the angel's face. He would also have good training because of being a detective. His victim would never hear him on account of his silent steps…

Rachel snorted, feeling ashamed at her "out there" thoughts. Joe was an innocent, perfectly normal person. He didn't deserve to have her think about him like that. Just because he was being nice to her didn't mean he was a bad person.

Rachel sighed in consternation as she shut her textbook and shuffled the rest of the books into a pile. She would have to be leaving for home soon.

-

Rachel let herself into her house through the front door. While she took her key out of the lock and deposited it back into her pocket, the wind shut the door with a slam behind her. Rachel jumped and stared at the door as if it were about to bite her. She held her hand against her heart to try to slow down her rapid pulse then took a couple steps inside.

The house greeted her with dead silence. She would never get used to being in the house alone. Rachel took a deep steadying breath and went into the kitchen to make herself a snack. On the way, she turned the radio in the living room up so the house wouldn't be so quiet.

The sound of the phone ringing cut through the music from the radio. Rachel stared at the extension on the counter for a second before answering.

"Hello?"

"Hey babe, what do you wanna do tonight?" slurred the voice of Rachel's ex-boyfriend, Adam.

Hearing his drunken voice sent shivers down Rachel's spine. "Leave me alone, Adam." She held her voice strong and spoke sharply. Her right arm unconsciously found the other to stroke it.

"Oh come on, baby. I know you like to have fun," Adam said in a deep voice that set off warning bells in Rachel's head.

"I'm sorry if I led you to believe that," Rachel spoke calmly into the phone but her eyes belied her emotions.

"Aww, playing hard to ge– "

Rachel hung up the phone and placed it on the counter. She got up from the kitchen table and strode to the front door where she made sure it was locked before going upstairs. There was something she had to do that she kept putting off.

Once upstairs, Rachel passed her own room before pausing at her sister's door. Memories threatened to flood her as she peered into Julia's room. Her sister's room wasn't either neat or messy; it was rather a mix of the two.

Rachel took a seat on the bed. One lone tear slid down her cheek. She didn't bother to rub it away. She'd already cried; she'd already grieved. Now it was time to move on.

Onto vengeance.

She steeled herself and then began to methodically search the room. In the drawers of the desk, in the closet, in the dresser, under the bed.

Thirty minutes later all that she found were new reserves of tears and memories. Julia seemed to be just the older sister Rachel had thought her to be.

But there were still faint traces.

And Rachel knew in her heart that there was more to her sister's death.

Rachel put herself in Julia's shoes. What would Julia do after she got the secretive phone calls? She would lock herself in her room to talk in hushed tones. She might jot things down on scraps of paper.

Then Rachel thought of it, the one place she hadn't checked. Running into her own room to find some old newspaper, she laid it on Julia's bedroom floor. She proceeded to dump the contents of the Julia's wastebasket onto it. She'd never gotten around to cleaning Julia's room after her death.

Sifting through the trash, Rachel found various different bits of… well, trash. But near the end of the pile, she found a piece of crumpled up notebook paper. Her heart jumped with excitement even though she rationally knew that it could just be a homework assignment.

Uncrumpling the paper, she found a smudged phone number written in black pen. _Yes! _Rachel thought in jubilation. It could be just a friend's phone number or it could be something bigger. The area code was Bayport's.

She took a phone from the hall off the hook and dialed the number. 555-7983.

"Hello?" a voice on the other end answered.

"Who's this?" Rachel asked.

"Jones and Smith, incorporated. Who's calling?" For some reason, the voice sent a shiver down her spine even though it didn't sound very brusque.

"Rachel West," Rachel answered immediately. On second thought, she realized that stating her real name was foolhardy.

"Julia West's sister?"

"Yes, wh-" Before she could finish her question, the phone cut off to the dial tone. In the next minute, the doorbell rang. Rachel's heart began to beat faster as she imagined all the possible things that could happen.

She padded down the stairs to the front door. But before she could make it to the door, she heard his voice.

"Let me in, babe. I know you're in there. Followed you home, you know." Rachel's heart took off without her. She felt her chest tightening and she shuddered at his voice.

"Now, you know that I can just come around back and open that window with the broken lock. Or I can pick the lock of the back door. So why don't you let me in? I have a surprise for you." He made his last sentence husky.

Rachel stared at the front door in silence. She couldn't breathe. She heard that voice in her head, magnified a hundred times and in a loop.

_What do I do, what do I do? _

She could feel the pressure in her head building and pain made itself know in the bruises around her body and the handprint on her left arm.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"_Why are you wearing that? You look ugly."_

_Haley bit her lip and twirled her hair around a finger. "I just bought this yesterday. I thought it looked good."_

"_Are you kidding? Look at your stomach. Your fat is hanging out. And your legs are hideous."_

_Haley looked into the bedroom mirror mounted on the door. On second glance, she could see what he was talking about. The dress wasn't cut right for her. Nowadays, no dress seemed to fit right. Always something wrong that Mark pointed out right away. "You're right. Maybe I should change." She fingered the strap, feeling disheartened. She'd picked out the dress especially for Mark. But as he'd said, it just wasn't becoming for her. Haley moved into the adjoining bathroom to change again. _

_Mark grabbed her arm roughly as she passed him. Haley cried out in surprise. "Shut up," Mark ordered. "Where are you going?" he asked tersely. "Why can't you change in here? Are you hiding something?" Haley shook her head frantically as tears filled up her eyes. She let out a sob as Mark shook her violently. "You're hiding something, I know you are." _

_Haley couldn't do anything but shake her head and weep. The day had been going so well until now. Mark ripped her dress open at the neck. A thin gold cross necklace hung from Haley's neck, swinging as Mark handled her. "I told you not to wear that!" he told her angrily. _

_In a swift movement, he ripped the necklace from her neck. Haley cried out when she felt the chain cut into the back of her neck. She cowered, and sobbed brokenly, as Mark raised his hand._

_In the next room, two little girls held tight to each other in their shared bed as they listened to the sounds of slaps and crying._

Rachel stood, frozen in time as she listened to Adam speak huskily to her from the other side of the door. Her heart was beating so rapidly that she couldn't tell one palpitation from the next yet she was so cold and still.

Then a passing police siren pierced Rachel's thoughts and brought her out of her reverie. She undid the bolt on the front door and slowly opened the door. She stood a foot away from the opening.

"Now that's better. Good girl." The words sent something racing down Rachel's memory. A man saying the exact same words.

Then something different popped into her head. This time, it wasn't a man. It was a girl no bigger than herself. Her sister. Rachel fingered the silver heart that hung from her neck, resting on her chest above her own heart. And she knew what to do. She pulled the door open enough so that she could get a good look at Adam. He staggered forward, eyes glassy. She could smell the beer on his breath.

"Adam, you need to go," Rachel spoke the words she'd been saying for the past few days. But this time, instead of being shaky and unsure, they were strong and final. "Leave me alone." She pointed to his car for emphasis. But he didn't take the hint like he had been doing since they started dating. And now he was irritated.

"Bitch. Still playing hard to get," Adam said in annoyance.

"Remember, I warned you," Rachel informed him. She released a powerful kick to his midsection. The kick connected solidly and Adam lurched backwards with a loud "oomph." "Go away, Adam. Don't ever talk to me again," Rachel told him and shut the door in finality. She leaned her back against the large oak door and sighed heavily.

-

The second day of Winter Break found the Hardys watching movies at home in front of a healthy fire with their girlfriends, Callie Shaw and Vanessa Bender. The day after finals were over they had all gone to a huge party before everybody started leaving for vacations. Today was just a day to relax. And so relax the Hardys did.

"Mmmm you smell really good," Joe spoke into the top of his girlfriend Vanessa's head as he kissed her hair.

"Thank you," she gave her muffled reply into his chest with a smile. She was leaning against Joe's shoulder on the Hardys' couch in front of the TV. "Regular showers do that to a person."

Joe gave a deep rumbly chuckle, causing Vanessa to vibrate against his broad chest. He trailed soft kisses down to her forehead and then down her nose. Then he tilted her face up for a long and gentle kiss on the mouth. "_What did I do to deserve such a perfect boyfriend who worships me?" _Vanessa wondered blissfully.

The couple's picture perfect moment was ruined by a throw pillow tossed from the other couch. "Get a room, you two," Frank told them with a shake of his head and a grin.

The entrance of Laura Hardy, the boys' blonde, petite mother, interrupted a retort from Joe. The smell of cookies wafted around her. She was carrying a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies, still hot from the oven, which she set down on the coffee table. "Help yourselves," she told the four teens.

"Thanks Mrs. Hardy," Callie and Vanessa chorused.

"No problem," Laura said with a warm smile. "I thought you guys might be hungry. And it's cold today."

"I'm starving," Joe said eagerly, being the first to reach for the plate of cookies. Frank, Callie, and Vanessa's hands were close behind.

"Careful, they're still a little hot," Laura added.

Her warning came too late; Joe had the cookie halfway to his mouth and in his enthusiasm, he took a huge bite of his cookie and was chewing it before he realized how hot it was. He exhaled, flapping his hands about as steam came out of his mouth and dropped the rest of the cookie onto the table.

The other four laughed at his antics. Joe finally swallowed the cookie and made exaggerated gestures to show how he could feel the heat of the snack going down to his stomach.

"Smooth," Frank told his brother.

"Honey, I warned you," Laura said, blue eyes twinkling. She knew that the cookies weren't hot enough to actually do any damage. She'd learned that lesson long ago from a certain impetuous little boy.

"No, it wasn't that bad," Joe said. "I think my mouth is numb or just not sensitive anymore from all those other times growing up." He reached for the other half of his cookie.

"Hot cocoa coming up soon," Laura informed the teens as she strolled back to the kitchen to prepare it.

Vanessa snuggled up to Joe again and leaned against his chest. He wrapped his muscular arms around her and she sighed in contentment. This must be what heaven was like. Wrapped up cozy and warm in the arms of a handsome young man who loved her and a second mom who made homemade cookies and hot cocoa.

-

The ring of the telephone brought Rachel out of her daze. She'd been playing her guitar since Adam had left. Laying her guitar on her bed, she padded to the nearest phone. It wasn't like she had anything better to do but on the other hand, nobody interesting was going to call her.

She thought of all the students talking about the big winter break party at Michael Kane's house. Nobody was going to call her and invite her to that sort of party.

"Hello?" she answered the phone, absentmindedly twirling the cord. Her musings had led her to think about Joe Hardy. His blue eyes… that charismatic charm and leadership he had that could make even rival students work together on group projects…

"Is this Rachel West?" a startling raspy voice asked.

"Yes. Who -"

The raspy voice cut in to warn, "If you know what's good for you, mind your own business."

"Wha-" Rachel began to ask again but for the second time that day, the harsh sound of the dial tone suspended her call.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Monday morning of Winter Break in the Hardy home could only be described as slow. The Hardy brothers didn't have any plans for the day yet other than hanging out with Callie and Vanessa. They were in no rush to go anywhere or do anything so the morning was unhurried. This meant that Joe slept until eleven and Frank got up at nine to go for his morning run. In turn, that meant Frank was able to play one of his favorite games. Waking up Joe.

After finishing his run, Frank went straight up the stairs in his sweat soaked sleeveless shirt and running shorts. It wasn't cold enough to have to wear pants today due to unseasonably warm weather. Every now and then at rare times, the weather was warm in the middle of a cold season.

Frank peeled off his sticky clothes, one by one, and tossed them into the laundry hamper. First he relaxingly pulled his Bayport University sleeveless shirt over his head and wiped the sweat dripping off his face and running into his eyes.

On days like this, he had the bathroom to himself. Not that sharing the bathroom with Joe was such a big deal but once the boys had grown, the small, shared bathroom had gotten crowded. By now, the brothers had a routine. Frank brushed and shaved, then showered after going after his run. While he was showering, Joe brushed and shaved. Only when one of them slept late (usually Joe) was their schedule disrupted. Then both six footers had to share the tiny sink, usually jostling each other in the process.

The shirt went inside out and into the hamper. Next, the shorts had to be peeled off Frank's legs because of the sweat that had caused the garment to stick to his skin. Once he'd finished stripping leisurely, Frank stepped into the shower stall and shut the glass door behind him. He turned the knob and sighed as the warm water cascaded down his weary, sweaty back. Closing his eyes, he let the warmth surround him before he picked up the soap.

He would be able to do this every day this week. Winter break was great that way. And no cases. As much as he loved detective work, Frank had to admit that it was tiring, hard work. Luckily, the boys were going to be staying close to home and most likely wouldn't stumble across any mysteries.

After he finished his shower, Frank toweled off his hair and wrapped the towel around his waist before stepping onto the tan rug covering the bathroom tiles. He walked into his room to get dressed and proceeded to search through his dresser for a pair of shorts and a shirt. Not finding the shirt he was looking for, he realized that Joe must have borrowed it. And now he had to go search for his shirt in Joe's room. Or more like Joe's disaster zone. Unlike Frank, Joe wasn't as organized. Frank sighed. And that was the one shirt he wanted to wear at the moment. Steeling himself, he pushed open Joe's door connecting to the bathroom and surveyed the scene.

Frank stood in the doorway of Joe's room and watched his little brother sleep for a moment. A faint grin tugged up at his lips and some of Frank's irritation dissipated. It never ceased to amaze him how his brother slept. First, he could sleep through anything if he was tired, even an earthquake. If they were on a stakeout, however, he would wake up at his name. Second, he slept so strangely. How could they even be related?

Right now, oblivious to the fact that Frank was watching him, Joe was sleeping diagonally across his bed. He claimed that it was impossible for him to fall asleep if he was lying "straight." His pillow had been flung on the ground in the middle of the night. One arm and one leg hung off the bed. The covers had collected at the bottom of the bed at Joe's feet and dragged on the floor, revealing that Joe was clad only in a pair of boxers. Joe was lying on his stomach, one arm above his head, and snoring softly.

Frank crept quietly to his brother's dresser so as to not wake Joe, hiking the towel around his waist up as he went. Apparently, it wasn't a good place to start his search. There weren't many articles of clothing in Joe's dresser. It was being used mostly to hang clothes on the ajar drawers. The bottom drawer contained the most garments. Frank figured that Joe rarely opened it, seeing as it was so low. It still contained clothes that were freshly folded. Sifting through the stack, Frank found one of his shirts that he'd long ago given up looking for. Frank snorted softly and shook his head.

Then Frank looked around Joe's room. It would be nearly impossible to find his shirt in the mess in Joe's room. Frank decided that he was going to have to settle for one of his other shirts. Feeling his exasperation at his slumbering brother coming back, Frank settled for playing his favorite game. It was late enough.

"Joe," Frank whispered, knowing that it most likely wouldn't wake his brother up. True to his nature, Joe didn't stir. "Wake up, Joe," Frank commanded again in a normal tone. Joe still didn't move. Now Frank shook his brother by the shoulder. This garnered a sleepy reaction. Joe responded to the touch by turning away from Frank, burying his face into the mattress and mewling sleepily in protest of the movement. Frank grinned. Joe would vehemently deny his actions when he was awake.

Next, Frank walked over to the windows and opened the blinds, arranging them so the rays of sunshine fell directly where Joe's head was at the moment. Joe instinctively moved his head away from the light with a sleepy grunt.

"C'mon Joe, time to get up baby brother," Frank added the hated nickname on purpose to rile Joe. But still the younger Hardy didn't awaken. Frank tied his towel tighter around his waist and took a seat on the bed beside Joe as he looked around the room for inspiration on other ways to wake Joe. His eye caught on the alarm clock by Joe's bed. Nah, Frank dismissed the idea; that was unoriginal and boring. It was time to make things interesting.

Studying the position Joe was sleeping in reminded Frank of days when they were younger. Joe was extremely ticklish. Almost everywhere on his body was ticklish.

A younger, carefree little boy with the bluest eyes sprang into Frank's head. A boy who never experienced greater losses than breaking his favorite toy. A boy with an infectious giggle who loved it when people laughed.

Determined to go on with his idea, Frank moved in closer. "Joe, this is your last chance to wake up before I wake you up," he warned. Not getting a response, he reflected again. Running a finger gently down Joe's spine would have him asleep in a second, he remembered. Frank wondered what would wake Joe in a second. He tried the spine trick, lightly brushing a finger down Joe's spine from the top of his neck down his bare back. Joe sighed sleepily but still didn't awaken.

"So that doesn't wake you, huh?" Frank commented softly to his slumbering brother. "Guess there's no other choice. Time for the tickle monster." Frank made sure there was nothing in the way of Joe's limbs, as he was sure to start flailing. He hadn't ticked his brother since they were kids. Frank began to tickle his little brother under the arm that was raised over his head.

In response, Joe jerked awake and twitched. As in his whole body twitched. Frank ran a finger down Joe's side and this time Frank could tell that Joe was completely awake and very ticklish. Showing no mercy, he kept tickling him, knowing that it didn't hurt but.

Frank comfortably perched himself on the side of Joe's bed as he kept tickling him. Joe turned his face away and made a sound that suspiciously sounded like a giggle. But the mighty detective Joe Hardy did not giggle.

Dropping his guard, Frank chuckled but he had forgotten one little thing. Joe wasn't harmless when he woke up first thing in his definition of the morning.

Joe pounced. He knocked Frank off the bed and onto the floor.

"Hey!" Frank protested but it was muffled as Joe tackled him and rolled over him. The brothers play wrestled for a minute, each one getting on top of the other for a second before the other pulled him down. They hadn't been so lighthearted in a long while.

Five minutes later, Frank had enough. His run had been longer than usual and he was tired, though he would never admit it to Joe. Joe would just start the cracks about being "old."

"Um Joe, I think you should know that my towel is slipping off. And I'm not wearing anything under it," Frank stated solemnly.

Sure enough, Joe leapt off of Frank as if he was on fire. He quickly adjusted his boxers while Frank pretended to adjust his towel. In truth, it was still snug around his lean waist.

As if cued, the phone rang at that moment. Frank and Joe glanced at each other for a second. Then they yelled, "I got it," in unison and raced for the phone, both hoping that it was either Callie or Vanessa respectively.

Frank had the advantage of being more awake than Joe. But that was when Joe played by the rules. As Frank was about to reach for the phone, Joe yanked Frank's towel down and swiftly scrambled to pick up the phone. Frank paused to hastily tug his towel back up. The end had unraveled and it almost fell off his waist.

"Hello?" Joe answered the phone, voice still thick with sleep.

"Joe?" a tinny voice answered. "Is this a bad time?"

Joe cleared his throat. "Not exactly. What's up?" he asked as he shooed Frank away. Frank strolled into his room to get dressed when he was sure it wasn't Callie calling.

"Joe, I need help."

Joe recognized the frightened voice to be that of Rachel. "What's wrong?"

"It's complicated. It's about my sister." Rachel sounded petrified.

"Why don't you come over?" Joe suggested. "Do you know the address?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess I'll be over soon." Rachel's fear seemed to be dissipating but she seemed more unsure now.

"Okay. See you soon," Joe hung up the phone and moved into the bathroom. He would have just enough time to have a shower before Rachel arrived.

"Frank, Rachel called," Joe shouted to his brother from the bathroom.

"What did she want?" Frank asked curiously as Joe turned on the shower.

"She sounded scared. She said she needed help and that it was about her sister," Joe said loudly to be heard over the noise of the shower.

"Are you sure she really needs your help? What are you going to tell Vanessa?" Frank asked.

"Well, we have the rest of the week with Van and Callie. I'll find out what's wrong with Rachel today," Joe said from the shower. "She just sounded really scared."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"_Men are all the same, Rachel. They all disappoint you in the end," Julia West informed her sister. "You need to dump Adam and move on."_

"_You're being prejudiced. Just because you've seen other guys do it doesn't mean he's the same," Rachel retorted._

"_He is the same! I wish I could just get you to see that every guy is going to disappoint you. Look at Dad. I know we don't talk about him or Mom but you know what happened. I know you remember. Adam's just like him. Bad news."_

"_Don't bring Mom into this!"_

"_You're turning into her! Look at yourself! You're making the exact same mistakes that she did."_

"_This is me we're talking about. Maybe you should let me make my own mistakes. Not every guy is Dad!"_

"_I'm trying to help you! Stop listening to Adam. I might not always be around to protect you."_

"_I don't need your protection. I know what I'm doing and I'll know if it's time to leave him. You're my big sister and I know you're trying to warn me but you can't tell me how to live my life!" Rachel shouted in indignation, not caring at the moment about the pain she was inflicting on her sister with her words._

_Julia chose her words carefully. "I thought that too before but now I know better. I had a boyfriend just like Adam. Guess where he ended up?" Without giving Rachel any time to answer, Julia answered her own question. "Jail. Look, I just want what's best for you. Mom is gone, Dad's never around… we're all we've got left," she ended gently._

_Rachel studied the carpet. "I know," she said softly._

"_How is school going? You'd better be doing well; you don't want to end up like me. Get yourself a scholarship, leave this place, and start your life over," Julia advised._

"_Why do you always assume that I'm going to end up making the same mistakes you did?" Rachel asked, anger flaring up again. "I do pay attention, you know. I know what not to do, just the way you've taught me."_

"_Even so, you're well on the road to becoming me. I just want you to remember what to do in case anything goes wrong."_

"_Why would anything go wrong?" Rachel asked in confusion. "Do you know something I don't? Have you done something wrong?"_

"_I'm not saying anything will go wrong. I'm just saying it's possible. Anything is possible. It's just that…" Julia hesitated. _

"_It's just that what?" Rachel asked in apprehension._

"_Times are tough at the moment. I'm going to have to be gone more often than before. I know you're smart; I've taught you everything I learned. Get out of this town and find some good girl friends. Never trust men. You'll find yourself falling for the bad guy over and over."_

"_Not all guys are bad," Rachel protested._

"_Find me one guy who's pure at heart and prove me wrong then!" Julia exclaimed in exasperation._

"_Fine! I will!" Rachel exclaimed. "I'll prove you wrong."_

"_He's just going to seem good on the outside. But he's really got something he's not telling you."_

"_So have you, from what you're saying."_

"_Don't worry about me; worry about yourself," Julia told Rachel dismissively._

"_Don't worry about you? You're my sister! Of course I'm going to worry about you."_

"_You're my little sister and I haven't practically raised you to do something stupid and get hurt. Especially by Adam."_

"_I won't!"_

"_Fine, don't listen to me; you're the one who's going to regret it!" Julia felt her control slipping away. The West family had never been good at settling disputes without getting into shouting matches. If only her sister would understand._

"_I've seen mom and dad, I've seen you; I'll be okay. I'm not as naïve as you think."_

"_Prove it by acting smart! Find yourself some real friends."_

"_I can't prove it until you stop telling me what to do and start letting me make my own choices!"_

"_I would do that if I knew you were going to make the right choices. Truth is, you're a teenager; you're not going to listen to me but you will follow the friends you hang out with. History repeats itself. Get your act together and you won't have to relive Mom's life," Julia ended. She could only advise her sister. As Rachel had stated, what she did with her life was all in her own hands._

_Rachel nodded, still a little angry at being treated like a little kid. "I will," she promised, sensing that the conversation was over._

_Julia glanced at the digital alarm clock. "I have to leave now. I might not be back for a couple days. Be careful with Adam."_

"_I will." Rachel accepted a hasty hug from Julia. The sisters didn't hug very often._

"_Love you, little sis," Julia told Rachel as she pulled her messenger bag over her shoulder._

"_Love you too," Rachel returned, still feeling a little angry at her sister._

Rachel scrubbed her face with her hands, willing the tears not to fall at the memories she had. Her sister had always wanted the best for her. And now she was gone. She had nobody in this world now. Her dad didn't care.

Pausing at the stoplight, Rachel contemplated what she'd told Joe. She hoped he would listen and help her. Rachel glanced down at the map she'd printed with directions to the Hardy home to make sure she was going the right way.

-

_Ding dong. _

"That's Rachel," Joe called to Frank as he towel dried his blonde hair. It stuck up at all angles. Joe pushed it down and ran his fingers through the still wet locks. Wrapping a towel around his waist, Joe padded to his bedroom where he hurriedly began to pull on a pair of jeans.

"I got it," Frank told his brother as he went down the stairs to open the door.

"Hi Rachel," he greeted with a warm smile as he pulled open the door. "Come on in. Joe's getting ready; he'll be down in a minute."

"Okay," Rachel said. She stepped inside and waited to be led into the living room while Frank closed the door behind her.

"I'll go get Joe," Frank told her as he went up the stairs to check if Joe was ready. "Joe!" he called loudly before he was completely up the stairs.

Rachel hid a smile when Joe emerged from his room with his hair wet and holding his shirt in his hands. "What?" Joe asked his brother. "Dude, I'm coming. You don't need to yell."

Rachel couldn't quite hide her smile when Frank shoved Joe playfully and Joe lunged back to shove him harder, dropping his shirt. Rachel smiled in appreciation of Joe's toned abs. After Frank shoved Joe in return, Joe realized that Rachel had a good view of him and stopped mid-shove, picked up his shirt and pulled it on.

"Hey Rachel. So what's up?" Joe asked as he came down the stairs. Frank disappeared into one of the rooms upstairs.

"I have a case for you, Joe," Rachel stated simply. She looked into his eyes in an attempt to gauge what he was thinking.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Joe asked curiously. He took a seat on the sofa opposite her.

"It's my sister. Or… it _was_ my sister." Rachel amended. The thought made her lose her previous train of thought as memories threatened to crush her again.

"I'm sorry," Joe condoled. He gave her a minute to regain her composure before speaking again as curiosity got the better of him. "What do you think happened to your sister?" he asked.

"She was murdered," Rachel declared flatly with no emotion in her voice. She wasn't going to think about it. If she thought about it, she would never get anything done. She would never avenge her sister's death.

"Didn't she drown?" Joe asked in confusion. "I thought that the article said that she was found… dead in a swimming pool." Joe tried to skim over the last part as quickly and painlessly as possible. But he had to know.

"You read that?" Rachel asked in surprise. "Does everybody know more about my life than me?"

"That article did have a lot of information about you and your family," Joe conceded. "But then, I'm used to having all kinds of information about me end up in the paper."

"That's what everyone thinks," Rachel got back on subject. "But my sister wouldn't have drowned by accident. Somebody else killed her," Rachel ended dramatically.

After a pause, Joe said, "Well, that's a big accusation to make. Why do you think that other than the fact that Julia was a good swimmer?"

"I've been getting these threatening phone calls," Rachel explained. "And I found this piece of paper with a phone number in my sister's room." She handed the scrap of paper to Joe.

Joe was interrupted while he scrutinized the scrap of paper as the door bell rang. "Hold on, I'll be right back," he told Rachel as he got up from the couch to answer the door.

"Vanessa!" Joe said in surprise as he pulled open the door.

"Joe! Why do you seem so surprised to see me?" Vanessa asked. She walked around Joe to enter the Hardy home. "Rachel," Vanessa said in surprise. "Um, hi. What are you doing here?"

"Hi Vanessa," Rachel greeted.

"So you've met," Joe said, a little awkwardly as he shut the door and joined Vanessa and Rachel. "How do you know each other?" he asked to fill the uncomfortable silence.

"Rachel's in one of my classes," Vanessa told him.

"Right," Joe said. Another silence fell over the room. Joe was a bit confused with the tension in the room. He studied his girlfriend. Was she really jealous? All he was doing was helping Rachel.

"So, you didn't answer my question," Vanessa started again in a friendly tone. "What are you doing here?" Even to her own ears, Vanessa's words seemed forced.

Her possessiveness had stemmed from finding another girl from school with Joe alone in his home. She and Joe had been going steady for only a couple months and despite the fact that it was clear that Joe loved her, she couldn't help herself from doubting him just a little in the back of her mind when he spoke to girls. When they'd first begun to date after Joe had helped her with a case, rumors had circulated that it wasn't going to last too long. Sometimes, Vanessa worried about Joe's reputation from what she'd heard about him and his previous girlfriend, Iola Morton.

"Um, I actually need Joe's help," Rachel began to explain nervously.

"What do you need Joe's help for?" Vanessa cut in. She placed her hand on Joe's forearm protectively. Half her mind was telling her that she was coming off as a possessive, unkind girlfriend while the other half was worrying about Joe spending too much time with Rachel.

"My sister died and I think that someone killed her," Rachel stated bluntly. She didn't take it too kindly that Vanessa seemed to be implying that she didn't have any business in Joe's house.

Vanessa's expression showed how taken aback she was. She looked as if she had just had a bucket of cold water dumped over her head. "Oh," was all she could say. "I read about that. I'm sorry," Vanessa ended gently. The hand on Joe's arm dropped back to her side. _So maybe Joe is just really helping Rachel out and nothing was happening between them._

"Yeah, and I thought considering Joe's extensive success, I would ask him to help me find out who killed my sister," Rachel continued.

"Oh," Vanessa said again, feeling better about leaving Joe alone with Rachel. She immediately felt guilt settling over her at her actions towards her boyfriend's innocent exchange with Rachel. "Well, if you're busy, Joe, I can come back," she offered.

Joe had been watching the exchange with some amusement but mostly surprise. Vanessa wasn't the jealous type and she didn't usually jump all over girls that Joe talked to. "Do you mind?" Joe asked Vanessa to make sure. "I want to talk to Rachel for a while longer."

"It's fine," Vanessa replied. "I wasn't actually invited. And I am really sorry about what happened, Rachel. I hope you find who killed your sister."

"Thanks," Rachel told her as Vanessa proceeded to kiss Joe goodbye.

To Joe, Vanessa added, "Call me."

"Will do," Joe returned. As Vanessa left, Joe asked Rachel, "So where were we?"

Rachel proceeded to fill Joe in on the recent happenings pertaining to her case.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Is this it?" Frank asked, slowing down at the turn to another road. Because the main road was completely empty, he eased the brakes down.

It was the fifth day of winter break and Rachel, along with the Hardy brothers, were driving to the place where Julia West had died. It was a town a couple of miles away from Westport, which was a town bordering Bayport.

"Um, yes it is," Rachel decided. She was the middle of a Hardy sandwich since it made the most sense for her to sit in the middle because of her size. There wasn't that much room in the front bench seat of Laura Hardy's car and the backseat was filled with boxes that Laura had been meaning to transport for a while. Frank and Joe's van was still in the shop, waiting for a part to come in from a warehouse. Frank turned down the road to drive along it until a rundown old motel was visible.

"She was staying here?" Joe asked, unknowingly wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"I guess so. That's what it says," Rachel said hesitantly. She was surprised that her sister would have stayed in a place this cheap.

Frank put the car into park. The sleeve of his right arm brushed Rachel due to the close proximity of the three in the car's bench seat and Rachel managed to hide the shiver that ran down her spine. She mentally sighed in irritation. Every time either of the Hardys touched her or brushed against her in any way, she froze up or jerked. She wasn't trying to do it; it just happened. She couldn't help it. And she felt really bad about what the Hardys would think about her.

But on the other hand, Rachel felt… something that she couldn't place. The heater in the van was on high and the temperature was nice and warm. She felt cozy maybe but that wasn't completely it.

Sitting in between two six footers didn't leave much space for her in between them in the front seat. She'd squeezed her legs together as much as possible and her arms were crossed. She'd taken her heavy jacket off because of the warmth of the car and was clad in a black t-shirt. A faint bruise on her arm couldn't be seen unless somebody was actually looking at it.

But unbeknownst to her, both Hardys had noticed it due to their well developed powers of observation. Neither of them had commented on it or acknowledged its existence or the fact that Rachel obviously couldn't stand being touched. Both had wedged themselves into the sides of the car as much as possible to allow Rachel room, but that still couldn't make certain that she wasn't touched despite the meager amount of room the two six footers left her.

A driver who had been talking on his cell phone had been driving erratically in front of the car for a while and Frank had had to pull over after the driver had almost broadsided him at one point. Rachel had been suddenly thrown into Frank from the force, her seatbelt providing little security. In turn, Joe had been shoved into her for a second before quickly using the door handle to pry himself off her.

The encounter had left Rachel at the point of almost hyperventilation. Her body had panicked and her heartbeat was going a mile a minute even though she wasn't physically harmed at all. All three had gotten out of the van for a minute while Rachel caught her breath. She knew that Frank and Joe had probably noticed her loss of control but they didn't say anything about the incident except to call the car's license plate in.

They couldn't stay outside long due to the frigid air but a couple of minutes were enough to bring Rachel back to reality. Once she'd gotten some air, the three climbed back into the car and Frank started the engine and continued driving as if nothing had happened. Rachel appreciated the fact that Frank and Joe didn't mention the incident.

Frank pulled up in a parking spot beside the entrance to the motel. Despite the downtrodden impression the exterior of the motel gave, there were about ten cars in the lot.

"How are there so many people here?" Joe wondered out loud. "How did they find this place?"

"Same way we did, I guess," Frank replied. He unlocked the van and Rachel slid out of the seat after Joe.

"I just can't believe that Julia would stay here," Rachel said sadly. "If she'd picked a different place to stay, you think she'd still be here?" she asked.

Joe fought the urge to comfort her; to hug her. She looked so forlorn and small, looking at the place where her sister had died. She seemed fragile; like the next gust of wind would shatter her into pieces. Joe wanted to take her into his arms and shield her from the big, harsh world that kept tossing her challenges. But he didn't. Couldn't. Because he'd watched Rachel long enough to know that that would make it worse. She would fight him. So he controlled himself.

"You don't have to come, you know," Frank told her, studying her through keen brown eyes. "You can wait in the van. We can do it ourselves."

Rachel pulled herself up tall as if to rid herself of her trepidation. "No, I've got to do this."

"You sure?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Rachel said determinedly.

"Okay, let's go." Joe led the way to the motel.

"So this is it," Rachel stated detachedly. She peered into the motel swimming pool. The water didn't appear to be very clean. But that wasn't unexpected, judging from the rest of the motel.

An image of Julia lifelessly floating face down in the pool pushed its way into Rachel's mind and she forcefully shoved it out. She couldn't dwell on it. What was done was done. Now she just had to make sure that whoever had killed her sister would pay. And they would pay.

"What do we do now?" Rachel asked.

"What happened again?" Joe asked her.

"Well, she supposedly was swimming here and she dove in headfirst and hit her head. Or she hit her head somehow. All the article said was that she accidentally drowned while swimming here. But the police told us that she hit her head."

"Hmm, but you said that she was a strong swimmer?" Frank asked.

"She was. She loved to swim. She even taught me to swim," Rachel said fervently. "There's no way she would drown by accident. And the other stuff doesn't make much sense either. She wouldn't dive in. That's common sense and there would be no reason for her to dive at all. So how did she hit her head?"

"Maybe she slipped and fell in?" Joe suggested, not really believing the words himself. He looked around for a possible slippery area that would cause Julia to fall. "That would make the most sense."

"But it doesn't even make sense that she would swim or even come here. It wasn't to cool off or anything. She'd have no reason," Rachel brought up.

"She could've had some reason," Joe pointed out. "We don't know anything for sure."

"But still…" Rachel trailed off.

"You're right. It doesn't make very much sense," Frank told her.

"Especially if you're getting threatening phone calls," Joe interjected. "If you're sure that they're not one of your friends playing a trick on you."

"I'm sure," Rachel stated ardently. "I told you, they started after I called that number I found in Julia's room." _… and I don't have any friends_, Rachel continued in her head. The only person she had been most recently close to was Adam.

"We believe you," Joe assured her. "Now we've got to find someone with a motive to hurt her. Did she have any enemies?"

"Well, I don't really know about her life the past couple months. She's – she had been leaving for days at a time. I don't know what she did. I asked her but she never told me."

"Let's look around the motel a bit more and ask around. If we don't find anything, you're going to have to let us see her room. We're going to need more information about her to know what possibly could have happened and where she'd been going," Frank said. He looked off into space, deep in thought.

"I know this is going to sound accusing, but we need to know," Joe started. He looked into Rachel's eyes. "Don't take this the wrong way but did you ever get the feeling that Julia hung out with the wrong people at all? Or was ever associated with people that you had a bad feeling about at any time?"

Knowing the seriousness of the question, Rachel didn't argue. She knew that it had to be known even though it was hard to accept that her sister could possibly have done some wrong things. She knew that her sister wasn't perfect even if that was what she wanted to believe.

"Umm, she actually did sometimes hang out with people I don't trust. But recently, she wasn't with anybody… Or at least as far as I know," Rachel ended hesitantly. "I have no idea who she was with lately." She subconsciously left out the boyfriends her sister had brought home. The ones that always sent chills down her spine. And the ones that Julia had been talking about recently when the sisters had been fighting.

Frank and Joe exchanged a glance. "Well, I think if you really think that Julia met with foul play, we need to find out who she was hanging out with," Joe said.

"Did she gamble, drink, do drugs?" Frank asked gently. "Anything that would cause people to come after her?"

Rachel looked down at the cracked concrete as she thought. "Not as far as I know. She definitely didn't drink. I absolutely know that," she said strongly. The memories of Adam and her father surfaced in her mind. She knew that if she closed her eyes, she would remember again. She could never get away from the memories no matter how hard she tried. They were always brought up at some time or other. She forced herself to think about Frank's question. The Hardys watched her strong reaction to the drinking issue but again, didn't comment.

"I'm sure she didn't do drugs either. I would know; we lived in the same house. And I'm pretty sure she didn't gamble but I don't know. She never talked about gambling," Rachel told them.

"Okay then. Let's take one last look around and then we can go to your house if that's okay," Joe said.

"Okay," Rachel agreed. Frank silently led the way out of the pool area and back into the motel office. Joe and Rachel followed behind.

As the three teens made their way back inside, neither of them noticed a shadowy figure hiding on the side of the motel building away from the pool. Watching. Listening to every word that the teens exchanged. Silently slipping away from the building and to a dark blue car parked in the lot.

Not even the Hardys, with their finely honed observational skills.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Having found nothing more in the motel room where Julia had been staying, Rachel and the Hardys were driving to Rachel's house. The room itself that Julia had stayed at before her death was mostly empty except for a duffel bag that contained Julia's few clothes and everyday possessions.

Upon further examination, the bag was all that it appeared to be. With one exception. A crumpled piece of paper so minute it almost escaped the Hardys' attention. The phone number on it was a different one from the one found in Julia's trashcan. But with the same area code.

Frank pushed down on the gas pedal to make the car go faster. "This thing seriously needs a tune-up," he commented. "Joe, remember that we need to work on it this weekend. We're going to have to use it for a while."

"Do you know how much longer it's going to take for the van to be ready? When is that part coming in, anyway?"

"I'm not sure. Hopefully soon. Leave it to the van to need a part that isn't kept in stock," Frank replied.

Rachel listened in silence as Frank and Joe made small talk. They attempted to include her a few times but after a couple of one word answers, they mostly left her alone.

She sniffed as she kept her eyes glued to the passing scenery, not really taking it in. Somehow seeing where it happened made it more true. More real.

Joe turned to look at her. She was bundled up in her jacket despite the warm temperature of the car. She felt safer inside her cocoon of soft warmth. Like nothing could hurt her. Nothing could touch her. She shivered. "You okay?" Joe asked gently.

Another shiver ran down her spine at the gentle words. Rachel couldn't remember the last time, if ever, a guy had spoken like that to her. Like he actually cared what the answer would be. Like he wanted to do anything that would make her feel better. And would.

She was speechless at just the pure compassion that Joe showed her and it took her a moment to find her words.

"I'll be okay," she said softly, not believing herself. Negative thoughts entered her mind. How could she ever be okay? Her sister was gone. She was the last one. And she had nobody. Nobody in the world.

Sensing her insecurities even though what she was feeling didn't show, Joe assured her, "You will be okay." He slowly placed his left arm over Rachel's shoulder. He could feel her tense up at the ghost of the weight. She froze but Joe kept his arm over her. He didn't rest the complete weight of his arm on her to get her used to it. After a couple minutes had passed, he finally felt her muscles relax. So he slowly and purposefully let the weight of his arm rest over her.

Frank turned on the radio to mask the silence in the car. The radio station that the car had last been tuned to came on and a song played. _Whiskey Lullaby_ by Allison Kraus and Brad Paisley. The mournful melody of the singers' voices surrounding the vehicle made Rachel tense up. Joe took his arm off her, giving up on trying to physically comfort her. Time to try humor.

"Were you listening to this station, Frank?" he asked, a twinkle in his eye. Frank didn't look up from the road, knowing exactly what his brother was trying to do.

"Of course not," Frank answered. "This is mom's car. She listens to this stuff."

"You had the car after her though. You've been driving it for almost a week," Joe brought up. "You went for groceries yesterday. Alone," he added teasingly.

"Nice try but I wasn't listening to anything yesterday," Frank told him.

"Uh huh, yeah right," Joe replied mock disbelievingly.

Rachel's lips turned up slowly in a trembling smile at Joe's antics.

Frank looked into the rear view mirror for a second time. "Hey Joe, did you notice that car following us?" he asked.

Joe glanced at the mirror to check. "I think that car was with us when we left. Think it's just a coincidence?"

"We don't believe in coincidences, remember?" Frank reminded him grimly. He began to maneuver the car erratically, changing lanes and making turns in an attempt to throw their pursuer off their trail. But the dark blue car still stayed skillfully on their tail.

"Wow," Joe commented after a particularly sharp turn. "He's good."

"So now we know we're dealing with people who know what they're doing," Frank replied distractedly, eyes alternating between focusing on the road in front of them and the rearview mirror. He continued driving in silence.

Rachel braced herself with a hand against the dashboard so she wouldn't keep bumping into the Hardys as Frank continued to make lane changes and turns. The car chase caused adrenaline to flow to her nerves. Now this was finally living. She'd never experienced such an adrenaline rush before in her life. Well, she had but not like this. Not in these circumstances. This was great.

Frank glanced into the rearview mirror again. "Well, I think we lost him. You got the license plate, right?" he asked Joe.

"Of course. That driver was no match for the amazing Frank Hardy," Joe crowed.

"Uh Joe, I think you spoke too soon," Frank said as he watched the road behind them.

"What do you mean? We lost the car," Joe said, sweeping a quick glance around them. He ignored the other parts of the picture, focusing on looking for the car. Then what Frank was seeing caught his eye. "Okay, not good. Not good at all," he said.

"What?" Rachel twisted around in her seat to look behind them. The scene behind the car made her gasp out loud. "Oh my god," she said softly, disbelievingly. How could this be happening to her?

There weren't many cars driving on the road that the three were taking and now there wasn't a single car on the road to be seen. But what vehicle was there was a large truck. What made it horrifying wasn't even the man wearing the ski mask who was driving but the man in the passenger seat.

The one holding a rifle pointed towards the Hardys' car.

Time slowed for Rachel and she would be able to describe exactly what was happening later. It was surreal; she seemed to be watching the events unfold from behind a glass safety window. It wasn't her life.

Rachel West had never been in a car chase before. Rachel West had never been on the receiving side of a rifle. Until now.

Suddenly, a loud shattering crack broke the silence. Shards of glass went flying everywhere. "Duck!" Joe shoved Rachel down in her seat as he ducked down himself. As he did, another bullet caused another part of the glass behind the seats to shatter too, causing even more little bits of glass to go flying. They had enough speed to fly through the back windshield to the front of the car.

An errant piece of glass caught Rachel in the back of the head and she yelped. Joe quickly draped his arm around her head and pulled her down even more so she would be completely out of range of the bullets. Frank pushed down on the gas and weaved back and forth along the empty lanes to create a moving target. When a turnoff finally appeared, he turned sharply into it. They were met with more cars and a stoplight. Frank slowed the car down quickly and pulled over to the side of the road.

"You can get up now, they're gone," he informed Joe and Rachel. Joe sat up and stretched his legs which had been folded uncomfortably in the confined space. But safety came first. Not getting killed was the first issue. He examined a long scrape along the side of his arm. It was bleeding lightly but no big deal compared to other injuries.

"Are you guys okay?" Frank asked. His seatbelt was tightly constraining him but he had just enough space that he could still breathe. It had locked during one of his daring turns and stops. Frank knew he would have a bruise on his chest as a result. But it had saved him from going through the window or sustaining worse injury. No big deal.

"I'm good, just a scratch," Joe replied. He looked down at Rachel. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Rachel shakily and slowly pushed herself off the floor. She could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her, making her heart beat quickly and erratically and her nerves jittery. "Wow," was all she could manage to say.

"We do have that effect on people," Joe joked. He gave her an appraising glance and noticed her head.

"You're bleeding," Frank said worriedly, also surveying Rachel. He pulled at his seatbelt but it didn't give. It was locked tight against him.

"Here, let me see," Joe gently turned Rachel's head toward him so he could examine it in the light. "Just lightly. It must have been a graze. Does it hurt?" he asked.

Rachel became aware of a dull throbbing in the back of her head once the Hardys pointed it out. "A little," she said. She reached up to gingerly feel a bump on the back of her head. Her fingers came back sticky with blood. Her blood.

Rachel stared at her wet hand in surprise. It still felt like she was watching a movie or something. A head injury could be bad. She could lose her memory by amnesia or go crazy or have flashbacks all the time. That would be awful. Her mind raced, the type of situation she was in making her react with confusion and fear. But it wasn't as if she'd never seen blood before.

"Let's clean that up," Joe gently led Rachel by the arm out of the car. Her knees buckled but Joe's reflexes quickly had him supporting her under the arms. He gave her a moment to orient herself and helped her lean against the car before ducking into the backseat of the car to dig out a water bottle and piece of cloth. "Need help, bro?" he asked Frank, who was still struggling with his seatbelt.

"I think I'm going to have to cut it," Frank answered remorsefully. "Mom is not going to be happy." He used his pocketknife to saw through the material of the belt.

"Okay, here we go," Joe tilted Rachel's head for better access. He then slowly poured the water from the bottle onto her head. She hissed at the stinging it caused. Joe laid the cloth across the wound and applied direct pressure. The white cloth quickly became saturated with red wetness but Joe held the pressure, watching Rachel study the ground to take her mind off the pain.

She studied Joe's shoes. He was wearing a pair of Adidas today, white with black stripes down the sides. They looked to be kind of new; but not brand new out of the box, judging from the dinginess of the white and the creases around the end of the toe area.

Now that the initial shock was wearing off, the aching and throbbing of Rachel's head wound made itself known. "Ouch," she said impassively as Joe slightly increased the pressure.

"We'll get you some pain reliever," Joe promised her. "Frank, I think it's in the glove compartment," he told his brother.

Frank had finally gotten free of his seatbelt and he now stepped outside the car, stretching his muscles. The sore protests made him wince in pain. He lifted his shirt up to examine a long bruise in the shape of the now useless seatbelt on his chest. "Ugh," he groaned.

"Frank?" Joe prompted.

"On it." Frank leaned into the car to find the aspirin. He popped one out and offered it to Rachel. Joe gave her the bottle to take the rest of the water with the pill. Rachel gratefully swallowed the pain reliever. Frank pulled out his phone and began dialing the number of the tow truck while Joe began calling people one by one to find someone able to pick them up.

Rachel listened to him get turned down by the Hardys' friends one by one. Everyone was too far away to be of service. But finally she heard Joe find a willing soul. Vanessa. Rachel mentally sighed as she envisioned the ride home.

The way Joe spoke to his girlfriend had her remembering that even though Joe did care for her, he had a girlfriend of his own. One that he cared deeply about. One that he loved. The thought had her spirits dropping again.

But then something else occurred to her. Something that had her hoping that Vanessa would hurry, despite the distance between them.

Hopefully Vanessa would get here before the people in the truck with the guns came back to finish the job.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Soon, but not soon enough for Rachel's comfort, Vanessa drove up in a dark gray car. "There she is," Joe commented, bringing Rachel out of a light trance. She had been sitting in the passenger seat of the car, swinging her legs.

Vanessa stepped out, a look of horror marring her pretty features. One could never get used to being friends with the Hardys.

"Vanessa!" Joe greeted, walking over to her and pecking her lightly on the cheek. He had been leaning against the car and he stumbled unsteadily for a step before reaching her.

"Are you guys okay?" Vanessa asked again worriedly. She pulled away from Joe's embrace to take a closer look at him.

"We're fine," Frank assured her. "But let's get going, there's no reason to stay here any longer than necessary."

Joe cut in, leading his girlfriend back to her car. "Yeah, let's go." Noticing Vanessa observing the cloth Rachel held over her head, he explained, "a piece of glass grazed Rachel but she's okay." The information didn't quite satisfy Vanessa but she climbed back into the driver's seat anyway.

Frank locked up the car that he had been driving after grabbing a few essentials from inside. After ushering Vanessa into her car, Joe moved to help Rachel up. She weaved unsteadily and leaned into him a little as she fought dizziness from the adrenaline still flowing through her. Joe supported her by her shoulders until she gained control and then led her to Vanessa's car.

"I got it. I'm fine," Rachel protested at the strong arm supporting her the short distance.

In a way, Rachel wished that she could just collapse into Joe and let herself be held by him for eternity. But in the other more logical side of her mind, she knew that she could never just relax with him. Rachel couldn't even remember the last time she had relaxed in someone's embrace, when she had truly felt safe in someone else's arms, much less a guy. Of course she used to, back when her sister would comfort her at night. But the other problem with that wish would be that Joe would never hold her for an eternity. No guy would ever do that for her. Just hold her with no expectations.

So Rachel pulled away not unlike Vanessa had, and ducked under the car's roof to sit down in the back seat. She could feel Joe's warm hand on her back. Supporting her, making sure she wouldn't lose balance. And the other hand. On her head. Making sure she wouldn't hit the car's roof. The warm, light touches cleared her head much more than Joe's almost-hug had earlier, with Vanessa watching. Joe shut the door slowly, making sure she wasn't in the way.

Presently, Frank climbed into the backseat through the other side and Vanessa began the drive back to Bayport. Frank had arranged for the car to be towed so that the teens didn't have to stay with it.

The drive was quiet. When they had started driving, Vanessa and Joe spoke in hushed tones while Frank questioned Rachel about her head and how she felt. But soon, the voices died away with each teen's mind taking them far away, each thinking about different things.

Rachel scurried around her house, shoving things into closets and cabinets. The house hadn't been cleaned since before Julia's death. And her father wouldn't do anything about it. When he actually came home of course.

Dishes and silverware stacked miles high in the kitchen were hastily tossed into the dishwasher. Clothes were scooped up and tossed into the hamper. Little items were thrown in brown paper bags or shoeboxes to be sorted out later. If ever.

It was the day after the car incident and today the Hardy boys were coming over to Rachel's house to look for more clues about Julia's death and disappearance.

The ring of the doorbell signaled the arrival of the Hardys and Rachel hastily rushed to the bathroom to do a last minute check of herself. She tugged a comb violently through her hair and winced when the tangles made themselves known. Ditching that attempt, she smoothed her hair down again, tugged her shirt down, pulled it back up so her cleavage wasn't showing, made sure the zipper on her jeans wasn't open or showing, and sniffed herself discreetly to make sure she hadn't put on too much or too little deodorant.

Finally satisfied for the moment, Rachel ran down the stairs to answer the door. She peered through the peephole to make sure that it was Frank and Joe before shoving the chain off and pulling open the front door.

"Hey Rachel!" Joe greeted her with a sunny grin. Frank smiled and added his own greeting.

"Hi guys, come on in," Rachel smiled, opening the door wider to let them in. If only she was greeted by two handsome, friendly young men every time she opened her front door.

"Okay, so let's start with Julia's room," Joe said, getting right down to the point.

"Okay," Rachel agreed as she led Frank and Joe up the stairs.

"Wow, your house is clean," Joe commented. A happy flush spread through Rachel's cheeks. Joe had noticed.

"He only noticed because his room looks like a tornado hit," Frank teased.

Joe punched him playfully. "Hey, I know where everything is," he retorted.

"Uh, no you don't," Frank returned with a wide grin. "You can never find what you need. Never ceases to amaze me how you became a detective."

Joe stuck his tongue out at the back of his brother's head at the moment Rachel turned to make sure the brothers were following. A six-footer with huge muscles sticking his tongue out at his big brother. She flipped her head back around to hide a huge grin that took over her face before they reached Julia's room.

The mood of the teens quickly changed from fun to somber. Julia's room had an air of sadness or finality surrounding it.

"We're just going to look around, okay?" Joe asked Rachel gently, no trace of his teasing fun mood around now that he needed to be a detective.

Rachel nodded with a sniff. She angled her head down so that her hair covered her face. She stood in the corner of the room while Frank and Joe methodically began searching the room. Slowly and systematically they turned the room upside down. But they didn't find anything.

Nothing except a locked bronze trunk. Rachel angled her face down again when Frank pulled it off the highest shelf in Julia's closet. She had forgotten all about that trunk. Remembering the memories had her fighting the tightness in her chest.

Her mother had given it to Julia years ago. She told Julia that it was a magical trunk and if she put her problems in it and locked them, when she opened it up again the next day, they would be gone. Julia had long since given up believing in it and kept important items that she didn't want anybody, including Rachel, to see locked up.

To have to go through her sister's personal possessions made the lump in Rachel's throat grow. But first they had to get the lock open.

Frank pulled out a bulging black wallet and a slim set of lock picks. He selected one and offered it, along with a torsion wrench, to Joe. Joe looked to Rachel for permission before inserting the thin metal pick into the lock.

Two minutes later, the three teens were sifting through the contents of the trunk. There weren't many items and they were done quickly, the Hardys having sensed that this trunk was private.

Rachel was discouraged. That was the last chance for a clue. Now what? Joe answered her unspoken question. He had been studying the chest through keen, trained eyes and noticed something.

"Wait, the bottom of this doesn't look right," Joe said.

"You're right," Frank said, noticing what Joe had brought to attention. "I bet it has a false bottom."

Rachel felt a thrill of excitement. Finally, they were getting somewhere! She brought a screwdriver from downstairs that Frank proceeded to insert under the bottom.

"Yup, I can feel it," Frank commented. Presently, he took off the bottom of the inside of the chest, revealing a wrapped bag and an assortment of official looking papers.

Rachel pulled out the wrapped bag. The contents made her mouth drop open in surprise.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Rachel and the Hardys spent about a half hour going through Julia's trunk. Rachel bypassed the papers under the hidden bottom and found it hard to concentrate while Frank flipped through them. All she had eyes for was the wrapped bag. Something about it made her pulse race. She couldn't put her finger on what it was. Maybe the way it was wrapped?

Upon opening it, something caught the light, sparkling so brightly that Rachel had to avert her eyes for a second. She gasped and almost dropped the bag in amazement.

"What is this?" she asked, not able to believe her eyes.

"Looks like a diamond," Joe said, eyes wide. "Think it's real?" he asked Frank.

"Let me see," Frank held out his hand for the diamond. He examined it for a moment, holding it up against the light.

Joe moved to stand beside him. "Isn't there a test we can do?" he asked impatiently, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Yeah, we learned about it, remember?" Frank replied absentmindedly, occupied with the shiny jewel in his hands. "First we need to clean it." Once that was done, he blew onto it. Before Rachel or Joe could blink, the fog was gone.

"Hey, where'd the fog go?" Joe asked as Frank blew onto the diamond again.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Rachel asked, holding her breath as she waited for Frank's answer.

A slow grin spread over Frank's face. "This is most likely a real diamond," he announced carefully.

Rachel couldn't speak. She just stared at the diamond in Frank's hands in astonishment. What could a diamond of all things be doing hidden in Julia's trunk? The implications of the find didn't sink in as quickly to her as it did for Frank and Joe. To them, anything was possible and finding a diamond in somebody's closet probably didn't mean too much. But to her, especially since it was found in her mysterious sister's closet… she could barely grasp the idea, while with the Hardys, this type of thing seemed to happen often. She surreptitiously pinched herself to check if she was dreaming.

Joe grinned. "You're rich now!" he exclaimed and Rachel hurriedly let her arm drop to her side. She didn't seem to be dreaming. Maybe she was dreaming that she wasn't dreaming…

Frank quickly cautioned, "We don't know where this is from."

Joe made a face. "I suppose we should check with the jewelry stores and see if a diamond has been stolen recently." At the look on Rachel's face, he quickly added, "Not that Julia stole it."

"Smooth," Frank rolled his eyes. "It's not that Julia stole the diamond. We just have to check all possibilities," he explained to Rachel, who still hadn't said a word since she'd found the diamond. "I think I heard something about diamonds and other jewels in the news. Remember?" he asked Joe.

"Yeah, I think Dad was talking about it or something," Joe replied.

"I think we should talk to him about it and see what he remembers first," Frank said, wrapping the diamond back up in the paper. "And then we - "

"Should check the stores," Joe finished his brother's sentence.

"Yeah." Frank picked up the stack of papers. "Let's go through these while we're here."

"Think Dad's going to come home today?" Joe asked his brother hopefully.

"He said he was wrapping up the ends so probably."

"Yes!" Joe grinned. Frank also smiled at the enthusiasm in his brother's voice and the light in his eyes. He was also glad that his father would be home.

Wrapped up in their own excitement at their father coming home and going through the papers, Frank and Joe didn't see Rachel's expression. Pure longing was etched across her face. How she wished to await her father's arrival back home safely again with her sibling. Share the excitement and anxiety with another person who she was close to and shared her own blood. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. As she picked up the stub of a movie ticket from the pile of items that hadn't been hidden in the chest, she was transported back in time…

"_Rach, come on!" Julia shouted up the stairs at her little sister. "We're not going to have enough time to shop before the movie." She jiggled her keys in impatience. "You're the one who wanted to see this movie, come onnn!"_

_Rachel finally arrived at the top of the staircase. "Do I look okay?" she asked in a quiet voice. It wasn't just the clothes she was wearing that she was asking about._

"_You look fine, just come on," Julia said impatiently before she took a second look at her younger sister. "Come here," she motioned Rachel down the stairs to her in a gentler tone. When Rachel was finally standing in front of her, looking down at the floor, Julia crouched down so she was at Rachel's level. _

"_It's just going to be you and me," she said gently, putting a hand on Rachel's shoulder, noticing how thin her sister was. She was just going to have to do something about that. Maybe a stop at McDonalds along the way. Definitely not her own preference for eating out but it was every kid's dream, right? "None of my friends are going to be there. We'll just get some clothes for you and then we'll catch the movie. You look fine. It's going to be okay."_

Rachel remembered being heartened by her sister's heart to heart, especially because it was going to be just the two of them. She always loved spending time with her older sister and especially in the car alone. She found that it was the best time to talk to her sister without any interruptions. None of her sister's friends were there and she wasn't allowed to talk on the phone while driving. All was good as long as Julia was in a good mood. They talked about anything and everything.

That day shopping with her sister before the movie had been bliss. For some unknown reason, Julia had decided that she needed to spend time with her sister and buy her clothes. Julia had even taken her to a "grown-up store;" one that she had not been allowed to shop at before. Upon reflection now, Rachel expected it had something to do with the prices.

They'd gone straight to the clearance aisle and Rachel had been disheartened until Julia found her some cheap but "cool" clothes that fit her perfectly. No more wearing hand-me-downs for a while. Julia had made suggestions and waited patiently when she forced Rachel to try all the clothes on to make sure they fit.

The woman at the counter who rang up their purchases recognized the fact that they were sisters and commented upon it, much to Rachel's delight. Julia hadn't even seemed to mind too much that day. She had just smiled down at Rachel, putting her arm around her skinny shoulders as she carried the bags to the car before leading Rachel into the theater.

Rachel remembered swiveling her head in all directions, taking in all the new sights. Julia had laughed at her enthusiasm, but now looking back, Rachel remembered seeing a little sadness in her sister's eyes. Or maybe she was just imagining it. But she had never figured out what had come over Julia that day. She remembered wondering if her sister was possessed, then deciding to just go along with it.

The theater was huge and smelled like popcorn, which was a very rare treat at their house. It had been clean, unlike all the ones that she'd gone to before. Those had candy wrappers scattered throughout the place and empty cups and bottles littering the ground. Julia had treated her to a giant Icee and just laughed and finished it off when Rachel became too full to have anymore.

"Hey! Look at this!" Joe exclaimed excitedly, bringing Rachel out of her reminiscence.

"What is it?" Franks asked as he made his way over to his brother.

"They're newspaper clippings," Joe explained. "And look what they're about."

Frank skimmed through the titles. "They're all about smuggling," he observed aloud.

"Yup," Joe's blue eyes sparkled with excitement.

"I found something too," Frank said. "An address for some company named Jones and Smith Incorporated," he explained. "It doesn't say what the company is or what it does but it has a phone number too."

"Jones and Smith Incorporated?" Joe repeated, his eyebrows raised. "That sounds like a pretty phony name."

"You never know but it could possibly be," Frank said, refusing to jump to conclusions.

"So we have to follow that lead too. Think we should –"

"Split up? Yeah." This time it was Frank who finished Joe's sentence. "I think we should both go to the address though. We might need backup."

"We also need to check the jewelry stores. So we should divide and conquer."

"Yup," Frank agreed, stacking the papers back into a neat pile on Julia's bed. "You don't mind if we take these, do you?" he asked Rachel.

Rachel shook her head quickly. "No," she said quietly. She didn't want anything that would lend credence to the fact that Julia might have stolen or smuggled diamonds to stay in the house.

Studying Rachel deeply for the first time since they'd been wrapped up in the contents, Joe spoke to her. "You know, all of this doesn't mean anything. It doesn't prove that your sister did anything wrong."

Rachel nodded slowly. "But what do you think?" she asked, looking up at Frank and Joe. "Do you think she did it?" Rachel waited for the answer in silence, not sure that she wanted to know the truth.

"It doesn't matter," Frank replied gently. Rachel looked at him, locking eyes with sincerely sorry chocolate eyes. There was absolutely nothing but concern and compassion in those milky depths. "All that matters is that we find out who killed your sister."

"Yeah, we don't have any proof one way or the other so don't worry about it yet," Joe added.

Rachel caught the look Frank shot his brother at the last word. _Yet_. Of course, nothing was certain either way and they wouldn't say anything to disappoint her or get her hopes up. It made sense.

"Well, we'd better get going," Frank said. "We'll ask Dad what he thinks about this case and then follow the clues we found."

"Yeah, we'll call you sometime tomorrow with progress," Joe added. Then he locked eyes with Rachel as Frank gathered up the papers and made everything neat and look like it had before they'd arrived. But no matter what he did, he couldn't erase the fact that a diamond was found in Rachel's house. "Try not to worry too much about it, okay? It's all going to work out, I promise."

Rachel could tell that it was heartfelt but she still felt like telling Joe to not make promises he couldn't keep. Of course, there was a chance that Joe would be able to keep his promise. But judging from Rachel's luck, probably not. Or maybe it was because Rachel was looking at it pessimistically. Maybe she should be glad that she had two handsome young men on her side, helping her find her sister's killer.

Two young men that were honest and trustworthy, from all that she had seen of them and what she had heard from various other sources.

Unlike a certain someone.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Van, I'm sorry but we're working on Rachel's case today," Joe said. He was on the phone with his girlfriend to inform her of the new developments of Rachel's plight.

"Oh," Vanessa said, her tone indicating her clear disappointment.

"Sorry but we can hang out tomorrow, okay?" Joe said quickly.

"Yeah, okay," Vanessa agreed unenthusiastically. She was surprising herself with the emotions that she felt rising to the surface. She definitely wasn't the jealous type; she'd actually met Joe when he'd helped her with a mystery of her own. So why was this one girl pushing buttons she didn't even know she had? It just felt like he was spending a whole lot of time with Rachel…

Joe ended the call as soon as the two had said their goodbyes. He flipped his cell phone shut and let out a long sigh, wishing he had all the time in the world to spend with his girlfriend. He had been putting Vanessa off because of being so busy before and now she wanted his time because they were on break. While he wanted to spend time with his girlfriend, he also knew that Rachel's case was important, especially with the newfound evidence.

"Is she mad?" Frank's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Nah," Joe replied. "She understands. She's just a little disappointed. And maybe going through Joe Hardy withdrawal," he finished with a wide grin.

Frank snorted. "Uh-huh, whatever helps you sleep at night, little brother. I think I have a Joe Hardy overdose," he added as an afterthought.

"No such thing," Joe said smugly. "Too much of a good thing is a good thing. It's just that you require a higher dose of me to survive so when you're away from me, you feel it harder than Vanessa."

Frank just shook his head. "So what are we doing first?"

"I think we should call the number first. And disguise your voice so that if the same guy is at the address, he won't recognize you."

"We?" Frank asked. "You mean me," he said, bringing attention to what Joe really meant.

"Did I say that?" Joe asked in mock innocence. "You're right, I meant you."'

"Wait, didn't we find another number in the chest?" Frank remembered. "I'll call this one and you call that one."

"Fine," Joe said easily. "I was going to do something else, but I guess I can do it."

"And what were you going to do that's more important than this?" Frank asked skeptically, not entirely sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"Finish the leftovers in the fridge?" Joe replied, his tone questioning. He grinned angelically at his brother. Though he had already eaten a couple hours ago, he was hungry again. But he had an excuse; after all, he was still a growing boy!

"I don't think so," Frank said. "We can eat after we go check out that address." He gestured at the phone.

"Wait a minute," Joe said as he realized something. "Should we really call with our home phone? Do we really want them to know what our number is?"

"Cell phones; star 67," was Frank's reply. He went to retrieve the two pieces of paper and the respective numbers written on them.

Two minutes later, the brothers were comparing notes. "I got the same response as Rachel did," Joe said. "Jones and Smith Incorporated. I tried questioning him but the phone went dead."

"The number I called didn't pick up at all," was Frank's response. "I tried it a couple times but nothing."

"Well, that was no help at all," Joe commented. "Guess we're going to the address then. We're going to have to take the motorcycles.

"What do you think, anyway?" Joe asked his brother in the garage as they were getting their respective motorcycles ready. Both of them had taken a couple minutes to dress warmly.

Frank paused what he was doing before he answered. It would be impossible to hear each other over the noise of their motorcycles and the wind after they started going. "I don't really know what to think. It's always possible that Julia was guilty of… something. No matter what Rachel thinks, she might not know her sister's darkest secrets. It's happened before."

"But…?" Joe asked. He could read some hesitation in Frank's voice though he said nothing about it and his face was diplomatic. "You don't think she did it, do you?"

"I just don't know, Joe. I really want to believe Rachel…" Frank trailed off.

Joe finished Frank's sentence for him again. "There's a lot of evidence to make it seem like Julia did something wrong. And we know that Rachel is hiding something."

Hearing Joe's last sentence, Frank straightened up from where he was leaning over his motorcycle to meet his eyes. "You noticed that too?"

"Of course. It wasn't too obvious; you have to look twice to see it but there is something there," Joe said, his eyes worried.

"She's sincere about her sister though," Frank stated. Both of them were sure about that. "There's just something there…"

"Maybe it's Adam," Joe suggested.

"I think that's definitely part of it," Frank said, his forehead creasing. "But that's not completely it."

"It's her family," Joe said decisively.

"Yeah, but we can't do anything about that," Frank said, half warningly. He knew his brother would like to make everything right in the world and sometimes his ideas got ahead of him when he didn't think before he acted.

"We can help her," Joe said insistently.

"We'll see," was all Frank said before mounting his motorcycle and kicking it to life. Joe stared at him, but not really seeing him. They could try, at least, he thought stubbornly.

Frank and Joe parked their motorcycles a couple blocks away from the address on the card. It was a pretty crowded parking lot that camouflaged their bikes.

"What's our cover?" Joe asked, studying the small office from the parking lot. "It looks normal enough."

"We have to see what kind of office it is. Then we can decide from there."

"Interviews for school paper?" Joe suggested. "Whatever they do, we can be asking about that."

"Sounds good, let's go." Frank began to walk towards the office when he felt Joe hold him back by the arm. "What?"

"Maybe only one of us should go so that if our cover's blown, the other can go next time."

"That's a good idea. I'll go this time, okay?" Frank waited for Joe's nod before continuing.

Frank was hoping that he could go visit the office first because he wasn't as influenced as Joe was. Joe had been acting weird with the whole Rachel thing and Frank wasn't sure it stopped at just being attracted to her. Frank knew his brother well and though Joe did have a wandering eye, he just didn't seem to be after Rachel in that way. Frank just couldn't put his finger on what it was though. Anyway, Joe might see things that weren't really there at the office.

"You go into one of those stores," he gestured to the line of other shops and offices down the street, "and look around."

"Okay," Joe agreed before going off.

Frank entered the office purposefully. There was only one receptionist and all was quiet in the small office. He looked around surreptitiously, making note of every detail in sight. But all he really noticed was the Jones and Smith Incorporated sign and that didn't tell him anything.

The receptionist looked up with a surprised look on her face. Frank guessed that not too many came to this place, especially with the boring sounding name and the even more boring looking office. "Hi, I'm William Porter," he introduced himself with a name off the top of his head. "I was told to come here because I need an interview with Mr. Jones about his company." Frank desperately hoped that there was actually a "Mr. Jones."

"Mr. Jones isn't in at the moment. He also isn't accepting any interviews. What company did you say you worked with?" the receptionist asked suspiciously. She furtively closed a notebook she had been working in and swept some papers off the desk and into a drawer as she spoke.

"I'm an intern," Frank said in response. He purposely was vague and he then looked around perceptibly. "So what kind of company is this anyway? My assignment wasn't very clear." Frank looked back at the receptionist for the answer, wanting to see her eyes when she replied.

"We are a small advertising company," the receptionist answered. Her eyes slid away from Frank's face to look at something else. Frank noted this before continuing with his questions. He noticed the receptionist's hand at that moment. It was resting inconspicuously on the intercom button and Frank thought he sensed movement behind the closed blinds on the door leading further into the office.

"I'm sorry Mr…"

"Porter," Frank filled in quickly.

"I'm sorry Mr. Porter, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We're very busy this time of year," the receptionist continued. She pursed her lips and waited for Frank to leave, looking towards the front door.

Deciding that he probably wouldn't be finding out anything more from her, Frank thanked her even though she hadn't been much help and went to relay the information to Joe.

"So she was acting suspicious?" Joe interrupted for the third time since his brother had begun telling his account of what had happened in the office. The brothers were meeting in a coffee shop near the parking lot where they had parked their bikes.

"Joe!" Frank said in exasperation. "Just let me finish, will you?" Joe nodded and made a show of zipping his lips up. Frank watched him for a second and then continued after making sure he wasn't going to interrupt him again. "I might have been imagining these things," he explained. "I can't be sure. It could be just a regular company. We can't jump to conclusions."

Forgetting his "zipped lips," Joe burst out, "But you saw her closing the stuff she was working on and holding down the intercom and the blinds moving and she wasn't answering your questions."

Frank sighed. He hadn't really expected his brother to agree but there wasn't enough evidence to prove anything. He took a sip of his cherry soda. "Listen to yourself," he calmly said to Joe. There was no heat in his voice. "Does that really sound like hard evidence? Or even any evidence at all?"

Joe was silent for a moment, unable to answer Frank's questions. In truth, it really wasn't enough. "Maybe I could-"

"No, you can't do anything," Frank interrupted lightly. "Right now at least. First call Rachel and tell her what happened and then we'll go back later." Joe's eyes lit up at the last part. "We'll come back at night and find out what the receptionist was doing."

As the brothers paid for their drinks and made their way to their motorcycles, they didn't notice a large muscular man come out of the office Frank had just been in.

They also hadn't noticed the man earlier, when he had trailed Frank to meet his brother and then had followed the two back to the shop.

"So what happened?" Rachel asked in excitement as she answered her cell phone. She had been waiting for this call for almost an hour. However, after a couple minutes of listening, her anticipation tapered away and she grew restless. "Oh." A minute later, she was ending the call. "Okay Joe, thanks for telling me. Yeah, okay, we'll see. Are you coming over tomorrow?" Rachel asked. She smiled brightly at the reply. "That sounds good. See you tomorrow."

When Rachel ended the call and flung herself onto her couch in frustration, she had no way of knowing that a person standing at the side of her house could hear her every word.

She would never be able to know that a tall man stood outside, listening to her conversation.

She wouldn't be able to see the fury in his eyes when he heard her mention her caller's name at the end.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sleep was just about to claim Frank when a sound jolted him back to the waking world. He squinted bleary eyes to just make out the shape of his brother quietly slipping into his room. Frank was confused for a minute before he realized that Joe's blanket was draped around him and he was clutching his pillow.

"You better not be sleepwalking," Frank groused. Though Joe's sleepwalking episodes were very rare, they were existent as the Hardy family had found when the boys were young.

"No, go back to sleep," Joe whispered.

"You sure you're awake?" Frank asked, still not sure why Joe was in his room in the middle of the night.

"Yes, I'm awake," Joe said in amusement, proceeding to throw his pillow down onto the floor by Frank's bed and lie down.

Frank watched his brother in confusion. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"The heater's making noise," Joe said in explanation. "It's too loud and the blinds are tapping against the window."

Frank's brows creased. "So you got scared?" he asked, still bewildered.

Joe rolled his eyes. "No, it's just annoying; I couldn't sleep. It was either your room or the couch. And it's too cold down there."

"Fine," Frank mumbled, turning over in bed and closing his eyes again. He would make sense of it in the morning. But for the second time, just as he was drifting off, he heard Joe's voice.

"Frank?" Joe whispered. "Are you awake?"

"No Joe, I'm not awake," Frank said irritably. "Go to sleep."

"Why are you so sleepy anyway?" Joe continued to keep up the conversation. "It's barely even past midnight. You must be getting _old_." Frank growled in response. "See, there's proof," Joe said with a grin that he knew Frank wouldn't see.

"It was a long day. Go to sleep!" Frank repeated, this time more heatedly.

"Fine, be that way," Joe said sulkily before rolling over on the carpeted floor as he tried to get comfortable.

Frank shifted on his bed too. "Did you turn into an octopus or something?" he asked finally, when Joe continued to move about on the floor.

"No," Joe replied shortly, still trying to find a comfortable position.

"Jeez, if I give you the bed or something, will you stop moving around?" Frank asked in exasperation. "I'll take the floor."

Joe finally settled and lay still. "I'm good." Frank sighed and closed his eyes yet again, willing himself to fall into a deep slumber where he wouldn't be able to hear Joe's voice. But his victory was short-lived. "So what do we do if the license doesn't come through?" Joe asked him.

Frank groaned. "Is this my payback for trying to converse with you in the morning?" he asked, ignoring Joe's question and hoping he would take the hint.

"Fine, we can talk tomorrow… or later today," Joe finally conceded.

"Good," Frank grumbled. He settled down again but should have known better.

Joe batted at the length of Frank's comforter that was dragging onto the floor. It was a larger comforter than the bed so it didn't all fit on top of the bed. "Get your thing out of my face," Joe complained.

Frank sighed again. He should have known the silence wouldn't last too long. "Why don't you just move down nearer to the door?" he asked.

"'Cause if Mom opens the door in the morning, it's gonna hit me," Joe replied easily.

"Deal with it," Frank snarled. His patience was seriously running out.

"Hmpf," Joe huffed.

A second later, Frank felt himself being yanked down onto the floor. He tumbled down onto Joe and the two were a mess of tangled limbs and bedding before they were wrestling. Joe attempted to hoist himself up on Frank's bed but he felt Frank tug him back down by the ankle.

"Why didn't you just take up my offer for the bed?" Frank groused as he tried to keep his brother from climbing onto the bed. It was left unsaid that the one who made it onto the bed would be the winner and the one on the floor would have to be compliant.

"I changed my mind," Joe grunted as he lunged again. His attempts were thwarted yet again by Frank. Even past midnight, both Hardys' senses were sharp.

Frank slapped at his brother and considered playing dirty. After some thought, during which he found himself shoved and pushed, he decided that it wasn't worth it. He had put up enough of a fight and now it was time to let Joe have the bed so they could both get some sleep.

At least, he convinced himself that he was "letting" Joe win the tussle. The brothers' skill level was pretty much matched these days. What one brother didn't have, he made up for in a different area. Frank had to keep himself sharp lest his brother start winning when he didn't want him to.

Five minutes later, Joe was lying contentedly on his brother's newly won bed. He panted for a moment as he got his breath back from the impromptu fight. "Getting rusty there, big brother?" he couldn't resist taunting.

Both brothers knew that Frank would've given up his bed in a second when Joe had first come into his room if Joe had really needed it. That was just the way it was. Had the roles been reversed, Joe would have done exactly the same thing. But it was more fun to do it this way. Besides, this way they could also pretend that they were tougher than they really were and that was always fun.

Frank and Joe settled in their respective sleeping places. They were both content for different reasons. Frank would finally be able to get to sleep. And Joe could finally sleep in a room with no annoying noises…

… except for Frank's snoring, which was one factor Joe hadn't considered. He halfheartedly tossed his pillow at his brother but didn't have any intention of waking him. He liked his life, thank you very much. And there was only so far someone's patience could hold.

"Hey boys," Fenton greeted his sons. He was sifting through the mail that had accumulated for him during his absence. A coffee mug shakily inscribed with "World's Best Dad" on the side rested beside a stack of mail. "Sleep well?"

Frank and Joe trooped down the stairs. Joe was still in pajamas while Frank was more ready to start his day.

Fenton watched his sons exchange a glance. Joe shoved his brother in response to Frank's smirk. "We slept great Dad," Frank said with a wide grin. Fenton shook his head. He knew that there was a lot he missed when he was away from home during his cases. He wished he could just stay and spend time with his sons. They never failed to make life interesting.

"Dad, we need a license check for this company," Frank said as he grabbed two bowls from a cabinet and offered one to Joe.

"Another case?" Fenton set down his mail and studied his sons. "Do you boys even know the meaning of vacation?" he asked, his brown eyes twinkling.

"Do you?" Joe countered as he took a seat at the kitchen table. He sloshed a bit of milk onto the table as he poured it into the second glass. Frank quickly wiped it up and put the milk away before joining Fenton and Joe at the table. Joe had already retrieved two spoons and the cereal.

Fenton marveled at the way the two brothers seemed to effortlessly execute their motions together. "Good point," he acquiesced. "What do you need the license check for?"

"We're helping a friend from school," Joe explained. "Her sister died and she thinks that she was murdered. We found an address in her sister's closet and we think that this company that keeps calling Rachel may be a fake one."

"Sounds like you two have been busy," Fenton remarked. "I'll see what I can do."

"Great," Frank said as he handed the company's card to his father. "So did you solve your case?"

"There was actually a twist with some new evidence so it's not over yet," Fenton replied. "Sorry boys, I know we had plans." Fenton watched his sons suppress their disappointment at this news. They were too old to complain especially since they were able to understand the situation and besides, it was a job hazard.

"Don't worry about it, Dad," Frank was the first one to assure. "We have our own case and we promised Vanessa and Callie that we'd hang out."

Joe followed suit but was a bit more outwardly reluctant than his brother. "Yeah, and Mom's visiting friends so we're good."

"That's good," Fenton said. He was interrupted from what he was going to say next by the buzz of his pager. "I've got to take this, boys. I'm going down to the station. I'll call you about this company when the check comes back."

"Sounds good," Frank said as he and Joe watched their father grab his coat and rush out of the house.

Once Fenton had left, Joe heaved a heavy sigh. "It's not fair," he complained, picking at his cereal which was becoming increasingly soggy.

"Think of Rachel," Frank said softly.

Joe considered as he chewed a large spoonful of cereal. "True. Think I should invite her with us, Vanessa, and Callie?"

"Think Vanessa would be thrilled?" Frank answered with a question.

Joe sighed. "I suppose not. I'm going to call Rachel anyway."

"You've been calling Rachel an awful lot lately," Frank commented casually.

"So?" Joe asked defensively.

Frank raised his hands in mock surrender. "So nothing. Just an observation. You know, just an interesting observation in an observationally interesting way," he added, studying his brother for clues as to what he felt about Rachel. But Joe kept a poker face that didn't belie what he was thinking.

Frank resisted adding one more thing because he knew that it wouldn't help anything. Despite himself, he wanted to make sure that his stubborn brother knew that he would only be able to do so much but if he kept pushing Joe, Joe would push back and then they would be worse off.

Rachel sat staring at the TV. Christmas was approaching quickly. One of the worst times of the year. There was an abundance of Christmas related programs on TV and if it wasn't a show or movie, it was an advertisement with children cheering and running down to the Christmas tree where colorfully wrapped presents filled the floor. Rachel stared without thinking, letting herself become lost in the hole inside her. She made no move to turn the television off but sank deeper and deeper into her head.

The flickering pictures on the TV then showed two sisters sitting together on a bed. The one who seemed to be older was comforting the younger one, telling her to think of all the people who were worse off than them, the ones who didn't even have a roof over their heads or warmth surrounding them. The two sisters themselves were in an orphanage.

Something inside Rachel snapped and she threw the remote hard at the TV, not caring when it knocked a glass figurine onto the carpet. At the risk of sounding downright inconsiderate and callous, she was sick and tired of being told that other people had it worse off. It wasn't fair! Julia always used to tell her that.

So it was true but still, she didn't need to be reminded every time she just wanted to wallow in misery at her own life. What had she done so wrong to deserve all this? Julia would keep saying the same things to get her to stop feeling sorry for herself.

Rachel was shocked at her own hatred at her sister. Feeling childish, she went to pick up the figure that had been knocked down. It was a beautiful figurine of two deer nuzzling each other that she'd bought for her sister, with her allowance, years ago. If she looked on the base, she would find the inscription written in her childlike scrawl.

She felt ashamed of herself for what she'd been thinking. The rage was gone as quick as it had come. Julia had been doing her best. It wasn't fair to her either but she had to put on a brave front for her younger sister.

Lots of people didn't have families. Parents that had gotten divorced. Family members that were deceased. Why should she get any special treatment?

Feeling even lower than before, Rachel pulled a throw blanket around herself. She noticed for the first time that she was shivering and so cold that her teeth were chattering despite the heater running in the background. She sniffled, feeling tears overcome her barriers and spill out across her cheeks as she remembered last year.

The last Christmas with her sister.

_Julia was working hard wrapping gifts for her sister. Unfortunately, the Wests didn't have much money to spare for presents so Julia had to find small things from cheap stores. She felt satisfied enough with her choices. You couldn't tell that most of them had been incredibly cheap._

_She tried to forget about a perfect sweater she wanted to buy that was way out of her price range. She could get it when it was on sale and cheaper. Of course, it would probably be out of style by then. Hopefully she would be able to find it at a different store or maybe secondhand._

"_Rachel!" she called. "Get up, sleepyhead. It's Christmas!" Rachel had been putting up a fuss the past week about not wanting any presents but Julia was sure that she would come around today. It was Christmas, after all._

_Rachel finally made her way to the stairs. She was still dressed in pajamas. Threadbare pajamas, Julia noticed. She was glad that she had remembered to add that to the list of gifts. "C'mon, there's presents," Julia said, motioning Rachel down._

"_I told you that I don't want any presents," Rachel said sullenly. She made no move to come down the stairs. _

"_Yeah but I got them anyway so come on! Everybody loves presents," Julia cajoled._

"_I don't," Rachel said shortly. She felt a stab of shame as Julia's face dropped but continued anyway. After all, she'd made herself clear. "I don't believe in Christmas anyway."_

"'_Course you don't; you stopped believing in Santa years ago," Julia said, still forcing cheeriness._

"_No, I don't believe in Christmas. In the spirit of Christmas and Christmas miracles," Rachel unsmilingly explained._

"_What do you mean?" Julia asked in a puzzled tone._

"_I hate Christmas. It's a fake holiday and everything about it is fake and it's stupid!" Rachel burst out. She felt tears welling up in her eyes as Julia's expression turned from fake cheery to angry. She hadn't meant for this to happen but why wouldn't it? _

_In the West family, if one person got irate and began to blame others, everybody would end up arguing and it would ultimately end up in a big fight with nothing getting solved._

"_Fine. You can just stay home and mope around. I was going to take you somewhere but since you obviously don't want to, I'm going to the Christmas party with my friends," Julia said angrily. She threw the so carefully wrapped presents at Rachel. "Enjoy your presents," she spit out before grabbing her keys and jacket and storming out the front door._

_Rachel stood in silence while she listened to the car engine start up loudly and peel out of the driveway. Once the car could no longer be heard, she fled to her room and slammed the door, finally letting the angry tears fall._

_Twenty minutes later when the house was completely still and she was completely cried out, Rachel finally went back down the stairs to retrieve the presents. _

_She stacked them on her desk and stared at them, feeling lower and lower as time ticked by. _


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Frank, Joe, Callie, and Vanessa sat around a table at Mr. Pizza enjoying their pizzas. Tony Prito, a friend of the group whose father was the owner of Mr. Pizza, was too busy to stay and chat with the gang but did come around occasionally to catch the tail end of their conversation.

The talk turned to Christmas experiences. Callie always had interesting stories to share from previous family gatherings because she had an extensive amount of… "interesting" relatives. "… and that's how my cousin Ben stopped coming to these reunions," she finished.

"Wow, I kinda wish I had your family," Vanessa said enviously. "I don't have half as many relatives as you. It's usually just me and my mom."

"You're lucking out," Callie promised. "You wouldn't want too many. So what about you two?" she asked the Hardys. "Any interesting relatives or Christmas stories?"

"Nah, our family is pretty normal," Frank replied. "Except of course, for Joe," he added as he nonchalantly took a bite of his pizza to escape his brother's mock glare.

"I remember one year all I wanted was for Dad to come home in time for Christmas," Joe began reminiscently. He paused to take a long slurp of his soda before continuing. "The best part was that he actually did come home _and_ he was dressed like Santa. Well, at first I didn't know it was him and I thought it was Santa so I told him that all I wanted for Christmas was for my dad to come home." Joe shook his head sheepishly at the elaboration. "The next morning, Dad was home."

"Aww, that is such a cute story," Vanessa crooned, leaning over to kiss her boyfriend.

"That was the last year he believed in Santa Claus though," Frank remembered. "He would tell that story to anyone who paid him any attention all that year. I guess it was good in one way or else I would never hear the end of that story. Dad was sure proud."

"I never believed in Santa Claus," Vanessa brought up. "It just didn't make sense. My mom tried to make me believe in it but failed."

"Parents," Joe said in humor as he mockingly shook his head. "They have no imaginations. Frank always had an explanation for every question that I had." Frank took a sip of his soda modestly. "In fact, it always amazes me how he was able to think so quickly and have answers to satisfy me."

All eyes turned to Frank, who shrugged. His face was slightly warm from the attention. "I knew what you would believe and what you wouldn't. It just took some use of my imagination but it wasn't too hard." Frank grinned at another memory of a young Joe rushing over to him to confirm what their mother had told him. "At one point, Joe didn't believe anything Mom and Dad told him and kept making sure they were telling the truth by asking me."

"That stage didn't last very long," Joe said a bit defensively in embarrassment at his naïve innocence. "Now we all know that you don't know everything even though I believed it a looong time ago," Joe drew out the vowels to make his point.

"I still think it was cute," Vanessa pulled her boyfriend to her for a longer kiss. Joe's pout immediately flipped over and he grinned as he wrapped an arm around Vanessa.

"With older cousins around, I didn't believe in Santa too long before they straightened me out," Callie said a bit sadly, feeling Frank's arm tighten around her. "Frank, you never told us when you stopped believing."

"Hmm, I have no idea," Frank mused. "I was really young; I was definitely younger than Joe when he stopped believing. I remember I finally confronted Mom and Dad about it. They were still trying to make both of us believe and they told me to pretend Santa Claus really did exist for Joe's sake."

"Jeez, way to keep me out of the loop," Joe protested good naturedly. "I guess it was worth it for that one year though."

"You are so lucky," Vanessa informed her boyfriend. "No matter how hard my mom tried, I still wanted a big family. I still wish I had siblings."

"Be careful what you wish for," Frank cautioned. "Any more than one or two Joes would definitely have done me in," Frank flashed a grin to his brother.

Before Joe could retort, Callie interrupted. "You would need one Frank to each Joe to keep the balance," she said with a sweet grin before continuing. "Then that way there would be a Frank to get every Joe out of trouble."

"That's good logic," said Frank with a wink to his girlfriend, drowning out his brother's protests. Now it was Frank and Callie's turn to exchange a long kiss.

"There would also be a Joe to keep each Frank's life interesting," Vanessa said smoothly, ceasing Joe's protests.

"Yup," that Joe could agree with. "Very true."

A ring and vibrate from Joe's cell phone interrupted the conversation. Joe pulled it out from his pocket to read Rachel's name as the caller. "It's Rachel," he told his brother.

"Hello?" Joe answered, missing the look on Vanessa's face as she heard Rachel's name.

"Joe, someone ransacked the house," Rachel said, her voice shaky.

"What?" Joe asked in surprise.

"Someone ransacked my house," Rachel repeated.

"Is anything missing?" Joe asked.

"Not that I can tell. But everything is all over the place," Rachel said fearfully, her voice trembling. It was a very creepy thought that someone had been inside her house without her knowledge and had gone through all of her stuff. "I didn't even leave the house for that long but when I came back, it was like this."

"Okay, well, Frank and I will be right over," Joe assured her.

As Joe spoke, Frank's cell rang and he answered it, looking apologetically at Callie and Vanessa.

"I'm sorry," Rachel apologized on Joe's line, feeling embarrassed at feeling so scared. The ransackers were long gone, but there was still a possibility that they would come back… They had gotten through the locked doors once, what was to say they wouldn't do it again?

"Don't worry about it," Joe reassured. "Hold on," he added as Frank motioned to his phone and for Joe to not hang up yet.

"That was Dad," Frank explained. "He wants to see us right now."

"But Rachel might not be safe at home," Joe said. "Her house was just ransacked and they could have been looking for the diamond."

Hearing this from the other end because Joe hadn't covered the mouthpiece of his cell well enough, Rachel's blood ran cold. So she wasn't safe. She looked around her house fearfully as if somebody was going to suddenly jump out at her at any moment from behind some piece of furniture or burst out from a closet door.

"Okay, well, Dad only needs to see one of us so I'll go see him and you bring Rachel over," Frank said. "Sorry girls," he apologized with a sigh. "We'll have to do this some other time."

Rachel could also hear the hustle and bustle in the background noise of Joe's phone. Though she felt bad for dragging Joe away from his friends, her fear was overpowering her conscience.

"Okay Rachel, I'll be there soon," Joe spoke into his cell again.

"Okay," Rachel said in a small voice. She grabbed a jacket to wear over her sweatshirt as she ended the call. She would wait for Joe outside. It was just too scary to stay inside by herself.

Hearing Rachel make her way to the front door, the man crouching by the side of her house moved farther back. Just far enough so that Rachel wouldn't be able to see him but he would still have a clear view of her. He crouched down again, and waited for Joe to arrive.

The neighbors had witnessed a lot of events happen around the West house. People in this neighborhood always kept to themselves. They liked their privacy and weren't curious at all to the goings-on in the houses around them.

Even if something happened inside the house right next to them, they wouldn't notice.

Joe drove as swiftly as he could to Rachel's house while still keeping to the speed limit. He and Frank had decided that he would take the van while Frank would get a ride from Callie.

He soon pulled over to the curb. Rachel quickly strode over to the van before he had even gotten out.

"Hey Rachel, you okay?" Joe asked in concern.

"Yeah, it was just kind of creepy in there," Rachel explained with a sheepish laugh. Now that Joe was here, it didn't seem so bad.

"So did you notice anything gone after you called?" Joe asked as they walked towards the house.

"I didn't look," Rachel replied.

"Okay, well we'll find out," Joe said. "Don't worry abou- _oomph_!" Joe grunted as what felt like a boulder barreled into him.

_A/N: If you want to know more about the Christmas experience Joe alludes to in the beginning of the chapter, read my story _Santa's Helpers_._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Rachel let out a half scream that was more of a gasp as she watched a large figure run into Joe. Joe was knocked to the ground and punched by the assailant. Rachel watched, eyes wide in horror and heart racing at the sudden attack. As the assailant raised his arm to land yet another punch and his jacket rode up, Rachel recognized a tattoo on his back that she could remember all too well.

"Adam! Get off him!"

But Adam did nothing to show that he had even heard Rachel. "This'll teach you to stay away from her," he growled at Joe.

Joe's instincts took over and he rolled over so that Adam couldn't get in a good shot at him. As Adam hesitated off balance, Joe suddenly leaped and tackled Adam so that now Adam was on the cold ground. But Adam had at least fifteen pounds and two inches on Joe so he soon had the upper hand again.

"Adam!" Rachel screamed as blood began to spurt from Joe's nose from Adam's assaults. "Stop it, you're hurting him." She looked around frantically for someone to help because due to her size, she couldn't really stop Adam. But visibly, nobody was around.

Or maybe they were watching through their upstairs windows, not willing to help. So Rachel knew it was up to her to stop Adam. Rather than try to pull him off Joe, knowing that he was a lot stronger than her, she did the next best thing - distracted him from Joe.

Adam had gotten above Joe and was drawing himself up to full height unsteadily after a powerful punch that had sent Joe to the ground. Rachel knew that now was the only time she would have a pretty clear shot at Adam. So she took it. Not for the first time, she aimed a formidable kick at the back of his knee. She executed it perfectly and quickly stepped away so Adam wouldn't fall on her as he fell backwards.

At the welcome diversion, Joe swiftly got to his feet and moved to take Adam into a headlock. Though his body protested the movements, he had been trained well and soon was rendering Adam motionless by cutting off his oxygen.

"Okay, dude, what's your problem?" Joe asked breathlessly, keeping his hold strong as he caught his breath.

Adam didn't answer but attempted to place his arm in front of Joe's body so he could get out of the hold. Rachel quickly caught it and held both of Adam's arms behind his back so he couldn't move at all. Even though Rachel wasn't nearly strong enough to hold him, the move combined with Joe's headlock prevented Adam from escaping. Adam remained silent but Rachel could feel the anger emanating from him and she shrank back a little.

"What's wrong with you Adam?" Rachel asked angrily, now that she was sure that Adam wasn't able to get at her. "Why can't you leave me alone and stop following me?"

Joe finally recovered enough so that he wasn't panting as much. He swiped across his face, wincing at the bloody streaks his sweatshirt sleeve beheld. "Have you been following Rachel? Seriously man, not cool," Joe said in disgust. "Stay away from her. I swear, if you ever get within ten feet of her ever again, I'm coming after you."

"You and what army?" Adam sneered, speaking for the first time since he'd been caught. Joe winced as he caught the rank whiff of alcohol off Adam's breath.

"Me and my brother," Joe said, dead serious. "You know, Frank, my brother. And he's even bigger than me and knows a couple more moves," Joe said in a menacing tone, exaggerating only slightly. "So remember that. I'm going to be in contact with Rachel."

Joe finally released Adam and motioned for Rachel to do the same. Adam rolled his eyes and sullenly stood. As Adam straightened to his full height, Rachel unconsciously shifted so that she was behind Joe. Joe noticed this and vowed to make sure Adam wasn't going to hurt either of them again.

After one more glance at Joe's stony face and Rachel's equally blank one, Adam finally limped away, cursing at them under his breath.

Joe watched him leave, his eyes cold steel until he had walked to the truck that was parked at the end of the block and left, tires screeching. As soon as Adam's truck was out of sight, he turned to Rachel. "Are you okay?"

Rachel stared. "Am _I _okay?" she repeated in disbelief. "Joe, he just attacked you. I should be asking _you_ that."

Joe shrugged it off casually, even though he was still bleeding. "Do you have a towel or something?" he asked, indicating the drying blood sheepishly.

"Yeah," Rachel smiled, "Come on in. You can clean up inside. You also need to get the blood out of your sweatshirt before it stains." Joe followed Rachel inside her house.

"Rachel, where's your dad?" Joe asked once Rachel had led him to the bathroom where she proceeded to get the first aid items necessary for his cuts. "Does he know about this?"

"He's… not here right now," Rachel answered, avoiding eye contact with Joe. "He's been away for a while. Here, let me have your sweatshirt," she offered, trying to change the subject.

"Is your dad away a lot?" Joe pressed as he pulled his sweatshirt over his head, wincing as it brushed against raw skin.

"Yeah," Rachel answered softly. She took out a bottle of liquid band-aid and began to apply it to the cuts on Joe's face.

"What does he do?" Joe couldn't help but feel like he was interrogating a criminal.

"What?" Rachel had a wide-eyed look at the question.

"What's your dad's job?" Joe elaborated.

"Oh," the muscles in Rachel's face relaxed visibly but not completely. "He doesn't really have a job anymore."

"Oh." Joe had a pretty good idea why he didn't have a job and wasn't around much but chose not to press the issue. He reached up to touch his split lip. "Oww," he said automatically.

Rachel gently slapped his hand away. "Leave it alone," she said lightly. As her hand brushed Joe's and she was looking into his bruised face, she was caught in a memory of seeing similar cuts and bruises on her mother's and sister's faces. Remembering them had her angling her head down so that her hair covered her face.

"_Mom, are you okay?" Julia asked. She hovered in the doorway of her mother's bedroom. Haley was lying with her back to the door. _

_Mark had just loudly stormed out and drove away. He wouldn't be home anytime soon so it was momentarily safe. _

"_I'm fine, honey," Haley lied, her voice rough. As she heard Julia enter the room, she turned toward her and Julia gasped at the colorful bruises decorating her mother's face. _

"_Mom, you've got to do something," Julia begged. "Please, for us?"_

"_Julia, it's fine. It was my own fault," Haley looked away from her daughter's pleading eyes. "Could you bring me a towel and that white bottle in the cabinet?" Haley's tone was firm and left no room for argument. Julia wordlessly went to the bathroom to fetch the supplies and Rachel watched from the doorway. _

"Rachel? _Rachel_?" Rachel came out of her daze to find Joe waving his hand in front of her face. "Are you okay? You're not squeamish over blood or something, are you?"

"Oh no, I'm fine," Rachel replied, her voice only faintly shaky. She mentally laughed at Joe's last question. How far from the truth could he be? "What did you say?"

"I asked if I could look around," Joe repeated. "You didn't move anything, did you?"

"No and that's fine," Rachel answered the two questions. "I'll just stay here and get the blood out of your sweatshirt." She filled the sink with water and soaked the bloody sleeve in the water. The sight of the blood swirling in the sink had her remembering another time. She didn't even hear Joe leave the bathroom.

_Rachel stumbled sleepily to the bathroom. She wasn't expecting her sister to be back until the next day so she was surprised at the sight of her sister standing over the bathroom sink in a tank top and shorts. She seemed to be soaking something in the sink. _

"_Julia?" she asked, still not completely awake. "You home already?"_

_At her voice, Julia turned around, revealing dark red stained water in the sink. Normally, Rachel wouldn't be too surprised but something else made her stop in her tracks and gasp audibly. "Julia?"_

"_Hey Rach," Julia said in a funny tone. Probably because of the split lip. Her whole face was puffy and she also had a black eye._

"_Oh my god Julia, what happened?" Rachel asked breathlessly._

"_Don't worry about it," was Julia's answer before turning back to the articles of clothing soaking in the sink. As she did, Rachel noticed something else._

"_What happened to your arm?" she asked in shock. It wasn't just a bruise. It was a long abrasion that looked to be pretty deep. Probably what had caused all the blood that Julia was currently trying to get out of her clothes._

"_Nothing, it's fine," Julia replied. "Can you use the other bathroom? I'm going to be in here awhile."_

"_Do you need any help?" Rachel asked hesitantly._

"_No, don't worry about it, just leave, please?" Julia's voice held a trace of pleading._

"_But-" Rachel began to protest._

"_It was Drew," Julia interrupted, successfully changing Rachel's train of thought._

"_Drew?" Rachel asked, taken aback. "Your boyfriend?"_

"_My ex-boyfriend," Julia let out a bitter laugh. "This is why you should stay away from guys, Rach."_

"_Not all guys are like him," Rachel fired back. She immediately felt bad for it as she watched her sister clean._

"_Just drop it, okay?" Julia said with a tired sigh. _

"_I can't 'just drop it'!" Rachel said indignantly. "Your boyfriend hurt you and you're just pretending nothing happened."_

"_No I'm not," Julia disagreed. "I told you he did it. But-"_

This time, Rachel was brought out of her reminiscence by accidentally turning the faucet to hot and scalding her hand. At the same time, Joe arrived back. "If you're sure that nothing is missing, we should go to my house," he said.

"I'm pretty sure," Rachel said. "Do you think that they were after the diamond? But how could they know? Nobody knows except you and Frank." Her tone at the end was slightly accusatory.

"They could have possibly been after the diamond. The search looked pretty methodical. It's weird that nothing was missing," Joe said. "Frank and I didn't tell anyone except our dad. And Dad is a detective himself so he knows to not go around repeating it."

"Sorry," Rachel apologized.

"For what? You've got nothing to apologize for. Your house just got ransacked and your ex-boyfriend has been stalking you."

Rachel couldn't bring herself to look at Joe. At the bruises and cuts that were her fault; and his piercing blue eyes that could see beyond the lies. She squeezed the excess water from his sweatshirt to give herself something to do. "I can go run this through the dryer," she offered, even though she knew that the dryer only worked at certain times.

"That's okay. If we're heading to my house, I can just dry it there. No worries," Joe said with a smile. "Would you be interested in staying with us for a couple days, until we find out who was in your house?"

"Really?" Rachel asked in surprise. She had been dreading the moment that Joe would leave her alone in her house. She'd been trying to decide if she would have to stay at a motel for a couple days. "Your family wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not," Joe replied, mentally berating himself for not thinking ahead enough to ask his mother. "The guest room's free."

"Wow. That would be so great. It was really creepy here alone," Rachel said honestly, relief clear in her voice.

"Well, let's go then," Joe said with a grin. "I hope Frank's already made it back home. Dad had some news for us."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Joe parked the van in the driveway. He noted a dark car also in the drive. "Good, looks like Frank and Dad are back," he commented.

Rachel looked around apprehensively. This neighborhood was much nicer than her own.

"Come on," Joe urged excitedly. He was hoping that his brother and father had some good news for them. He got out of the driver's side and fished around in his pocket for his keys. Once he had them, he grabbed his still wet sweatshirt and made his way up the front walk to the house. Rachel followed at a much more sedate pace. She had never even met Joe and Frank's parents before.

Despite the cars parked outside, the house was quiet. Rachel found herself wishing that they weren't home.

"Joseph Hardy, how many times do I have to tell y-" Laura Hardy broke off as she saw Rachel and the black eye and bruised face her son sported. Though she'd seen the van pull up, she hadn't watched long enough to see Joe and Rachel get out. "Joe!" she exclaimed worriedly. "What happened to you? Hi," she added her greeting to Rachel politely. "Sorry, I didn't know Joe had company."

"Mom, this is Rachel. Me and Frank are helping her, remember?" Joe introduced, hoping to lessen the reprimands and questions that were sure to come.

"Frank and I," Laura corrected automatically. She ignored Joe's reflexive eye roll and the wince when his sore face protested. "What happened to your face, young man?"

"I uh kinda got into a little fight," Joe said sheepishly. Laura just sighed. "So is it okay if Rachel stays in the guest room for a couple days?" Joe quickly continued. "Her house was just ransacked and she doesn't feel very safe."

"Yes, I suppose so," Laura said, a bit surprised but used to requests like this. She studied Rachel with an appraising eye. Rachel was looking down at the newly mopped shiny floor and half hiding behind her son. Poor girl looked uneasy, tired, and also… starving. She looked too skinny and Laura decided to change that while she was staying at 'Hotel Hardy.'

Joe knew the exact minute his mother gave in. It was when her face softened and she had that look on her face that she always had when Frank or Joe was hurt. "Great! Are Frank and Dad home?" he asked.

Joe's question was answered when Frank and Fenton arrived in the hall laughing and talking. Rachel felt a pang of jealousy as she watched the Hardys in their "natural habitat." They welcomed her easily into their home and didn't seem to have to censor themselves too much in front of her.

"Hey Joe, Rachel," Frank greeted. He did a double take when he laid eyes on his brother. "Jeez Joe, what did you do? All you were going to do was to go see Rachel." He didn't bring up Rachel's call in front of his parents. "Nice shiner," he added after doing a quick check to make sure Joe was okay otherwise. He seemed to be fine. Still standing pretty straight, not favoring any limb, talking fine…

"You're just jealous," Joe said with a mock scowl to lighten the mood. He knew his brother was only teasing and would soon be hovering annoyingly over him while making sure he was all right.

"So this is Rachel," Fenton broke in. "Nice to finally meet you," he greeted pleasantly, his brown eyes so like Frank's. In fact, Rachel could almost imagine that she was talking to a Frank from the future. It helped with her shyness but she was still a bit intimidated by the great Fenton Hardy. He seemed to be only an inch or two taller than his oldest son but it was more his character and reputation that were daunting.

Rachel shyly mumbled her own greeting.

"Dad, I need to talk to you," Joe said.

"So Rachel, are you hungry? I just put some biscuits in the oven and I think they're just about ready," Laura said with a gentle smile.

"Uh, sure," Rachel said shyly. She followed Laura to the kitchen.

"So what did you find out?" Joe asked his father and brother immediately after Laura and Rachel were out of sight.

"The license wasn't faked but I'm also sure that there's something fishy going on there," Fenton replied calmly. "Frank and I swung back over and we found something very interesting."

"What?" Joe asked, practically bouncing in excitement.

"I think I've made a major breakthrough in my own case," Fenton explained, his tone still unruffled.

"What was your case, anyway? Did you ever tell us?" Joe asked in confusion. "How does this relate?"

"I've been working on a case about a smuggling ring," Fenton said. "We've found the harbor where the smugglers have been working but have yet to find the base office they use. We got one in jail but he's not talking."

"So you think that that office is the base of the whole operation?" Joe asked incredulously.

"Yes, I found some evidence linking it to the smuggling operation."

"Wow," was all Joe could say.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Frank commented. "But what's Rachel's sister's connection?"

Suddenly, something occurred to Joe. "What were they smuggling?" he asked his father on a hunch.

"Drugs, some silver, diamonds," Fenton listed. "Why?"

"Diamonds?" Joe repeated, sharing an excited look with Frank. "Dad, we found a huge diamond in Julia's closet!"

"Didn't we tell you?" Frank asked, his eyebrows creased.

"No, I don't think you did. I would've remembered," Fenton said as he thought back to his conversation with his sons.

Joe's face fell. "Oh no," he groaned.

"What?" Fenton asked.

"That means that Julia was definitely involved," Joe explained in consternation. "Poor Rachel. What am I going to tell her?"

"It does look bad for her," Frank agreed. "So what did she call for? And what really happened to you?"

"She went out and when she returned, she found that her house had been ransacked. That's why she called."

"But that doesn't explain what happened to your face," Frank reached out to tilt Joe's chin gently towards the light so he could get a better look at the darkening bruises.

Joe swatted at his brother's hand. "I'm fine," he said. "When I got there, Adam kinda ambushed me. Stalker much?" he added, shaking his head.

"Wait, Adam as in Rachel's boyfriend Adam?" Frank clarified.

"Ex-boyfriend, yeah," Joe corrected. "It's still not sinking into his thick skull to stay away from her."

Frank sighed. "And of course your trouble magnet is shining like Rudolph's nose, isn't it? You had to be there alone at that exact time…" Frank let his voice trail off.

Fenton broke in before Joe could reply. "So what exactly is going on with Rachel?" he asked.

"According to the article, Rachel lost her mom years ago," Frank began. "She's been living with her sister and dad. But then her sister died, or as she thinks, was murdered." Fenton opened his mouth as if he was going to interrupt his son's telling of Rachel's tale but then shut it again and motioned for Frank to continue. "She asked us to find out who killed her sister. We went to investigate and found some papers and a diamond hidden in her closet."

"No offense to Rachel but how do you know that she's telling the complete truth?" Fenton asked warily, studying his younger son's reaction.

"Dad, she-"

"Just curious," Fenton said firmly to cease Joe's protests. He could tell that his son liked Rachel.

"There is something that she's hiding," Frank said evenly. "She-"

"Frank! She's completely innocent," Joe burst out, surprised that his brother was still suspicious of Rachel.

"Joe," Fenton said sternly. "I'm trying to get the whole unbiased story here."

"I am telling the whole story! Frank-"

"Isn't against you," Frank interrupted. His tone was still composed though his brother was accusing him. He held his hands up in a placating manner. "I'm not arguing," he explained. "I was just about to say that she's been hiding the thing with Adam and some other personal issues. We do think she's innocent in the whole thing with the smugglers. She's also been pretty convincing on thinking that Julia was innocent."

"Oh," Joe fell silent.

"But you two are keeping open minds about both Rachel and her sister being involved in something, aren't you?" Fenton made sure.

"Yeah," Frank agreed. "We're almost definitely sure that Rachel wasn't involved in anything though."

"Okay, well, I trust your gut instincts. I agree that it doesn't seem as if she could pull off something like that."

"Looks can be deceiving," Joe said, immediately realizing his choice of phrasing didn't help his case. "I mean that she didn't completely fall apart when Adam attacked me. Oh and I think he might have been drunk," he added quickly. "Don't know if I said that before."

"Ugh, poor Rachel," Frank made a face. "So Adam's been stalking her for a while."

"Seems like she's been able to keep him at bay but just barely," Joe agreed. "It's pretty obvious that she's scared of him. And she was definitely not digging having to stay at her house alone."

"I don't blame her," Fenton commented. "What else have you found out?"

"Rachel's dad is hardly ever at home and I think there's something fishy there. I didn't want to say this before because I may be jumping to conclusions but he might have been abusing her."

"That's a big conclusion to jump to, Joe," Fenton warned. "What evidence do you have?"

Before Joe could answer, Rachel and Laura appeared in the living room where the Hardy men were talking. A ring from within Fenton's pocket alerted him to a call and he turned away from his family to take the call. The conversation consisted of only a couple words before Fenton was hanging up.

"I'm sorry guys but I have to go," Fenton apologized.

"Oh honey, but you barely got home," Laura protested.

"Sorry dear," Fenton apologized again.

"Are going to be back soon?" Joe asked, his crestfallen eyes betraying his casual mask and tone.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Fenton promised.

"Okay," Joe agreed unhappily. He could feel Frank's dejection from beside him though his brother didn't say a word.

With that, Fenton hastily kissed Laura before rushing out of the house again.

Rachel watched the family from the background, feeling memories and nostalgia haunting her while at the same time feeling surprisingly content in the midst of the Hardys.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Rachel took a deep breath and let it out, watching it transform into a puff of white fog. It somehow felt so surreal. A picture from a movie, not her own life. But it was real. She just had to get used to it.

The cold misty air that swirled around didn't seep through her clothes and deep through her soul for once. It was rather a feeling of vitality that surrounded her. Rachel's cheeks were pink and her lips were chapped. But she didn't care.

The laughter surrounding her was enough to keep her warm. She joined in easily even though her own chuckle was lost among the others and felt a bit rusty.

Rachel, Frank, Joe, Callie, and Vanessa were sauntering down the streets of downtown Bayport a couple days after Rachel had been welcomed into the Hardy home. Laura had prodded her sons and Rachel to go out and have fun. Joe's bruises and black eye were already in the process of healing.

The teens had decided to go to downtown Bayport instead of the mall, despite the cold weather. They'd already eaten and were now window shopping and just enjoying being together. Apart from one store that Frank and Joe had wanted to go to because they were having a sale, they hadn't done any hardcore shopping yet and were only weighed down by one shopping bag.

"Oooh, look!" Callie squealed suddenly. She pointed excitedly at a small store nestled between two much larger ones.

Frank and Joe stared blankly at the store while the four came to a stop beside Callie.

"Oooh, yeah!" Vanessa let out a squeal identical to Callie's.

"What?" Frank asked in confusion at the girls' excitement.

"We've got to go in," Callie exclaimed, ignoring Frank, Joe, and Rachel, who stood gaping at her and Vanessa.

"Yeah, we have to!" Vanessa agreed. "Come on," she said, tugging at Joe's jacket sleeve.

"Wait, hold on," Joe protested. "Why are we going there?" Through the glass of the door, some of the items inside were clearly visible. Like all of the pink. Pink purses and handbags and scarves littered the shelves near the door. There were also lines and lines of what seemed to be makeup next to mirrors.

"This is just the best store ever!" Callie explained excitedly. "They have all these things you can try on and lots of free samples."

"Yeah, I didn't know there was one here!" Vanessa continued. "We went to one when we were on that vacation in California, remember? Now come on," she said as she tugged on Joe again.

"Can you make it fast?" Joe asked, shifting his weight from one leg to another. He was a bit unwilling to spend the rest of his day in a girly store.

"Just as long as it took you in your store," Vanessa said sweetly, referring to the electronics store they'd stopped at.

"You liked that store!" Joe protested. "You and Frank got some boring... ahem, I mean… _exciting_ computer stuff," Joe corrected himself after clearing his throat.

"And you got your drumsticks, didn't you?" Frank cut in.

"Yeah…" Joe's voice trailed away as he remembered the light up drumsticks he'd found. They were the best kind; not the kind where you pushed the button and it lit up but the ones that were clear, had multicolored lights, and lit up when you shook them.

Frank chuckled as he watched his brother's eyes light up. Though they didn't always share the same interests, the two of them always respected the other's taste, likes, and dislikes in spite of the good natured teasing.

The four teens filed through the doorway and down the aisles of samples. "Ooh, let's start with this," Vanessa motioned to a small jar of something that escaped Frank and Joe.

The boys made their way to the back where they saw oddly formed colorful chairs. Joe played with his new drumsticks while Frank read the box of his new computer accessory. The sounds of Callie, Vanessa, and Rachel's laughter echoed through the store to them and Frank and Joe couldn't help smiling themselves as they listened to the girls.

Vanessa and Callie did their best to put Rachel at ease and it seemed to them they were doing their job well. Rachel smiled and laughed much more often than they'd all seen her. And though she wasn't as interested in makeup as Vanessa and Callie, she knew the basics enough to have fun.

"Rachel seems like she's having fun," Joe commented in a low voice.

"Yeah, she does," Frank agreed. "As long as she keeps her mind off things, she'll be fine."

"But she can't escape reality forever," Joe pointed out. "And her reality frankly seems to suck."

"Yeah, we still have to talk to her about what's going to happen after things are over," Frank brought up.

"I really don't want to have that conversation," Joe said wistfully. "She's having so much fun. And opening up slowly. At least we know that Adam isn't going to hurt her again. I feel so bad for her, having to go back to that big house all alone. But at least she'll know that her sister was innocent. Maybe she'll be able to move on someday," Joe continued to muse, getting more and more worked up as he went. "We've just got to find the guys that did it!" he exclaimed.

"Joe," Frank interrupted sternly. "We've had this conversation. You can't control her life and you can't do this to yourself."

"Do what?" Joe asked confusedly.

"She isn't your responsibility." Before Joe could speak, Frank continued after making his tone placid. "Look, you do this to yourself every time. It's getting worse and worse."

"What is?" Joe broke in, still confused.

"If you'd just let me talk, I'd explain," Frank said in amusement. "I was just about to tell you."

"Right, go on," Joe said, a little embarrassed.

"Even if you don't notice, we all see what's going on," Frank said softly. "Remember Iola?" he asked unnecessarily, referring to Joe's deceased girlfriend.

Joe cast his eyes down, immediately flashing back to _that day_ in his mind. And also her smile, that sweet laugh, the way her hair curled at the ends… the sweet scent of her shampoo…

"After she died," Frank continued, trying to ignore the flash of pain reflected in Joe's eyes at the word before he quickly masked it. But Frank could still feel the anguish in his brother's soul. The bond between the brothers was so great that Frank could feel it himself; the searing pain deep within Joe. It combined with the empathy he was feeling for his brother and was enough for his heart to plummet but he pushed on.

"After she… well, you were wrecked," Frank said quickly, skipping over the word, unable to repeat it. "All you cared about was finding the ones who killed her. You were unpredictable, you weren't sleeping, weren't eating… all you wanted was revenge." Frank shuddered unconsciously at the memory.

"Anyway, whenever you have one of these kinds of cases, you always fall for the girl hard and do everything in your power to help her. And sometimes you take it too far. Even if the girl isn't really innocent."

Joe grimaced. "And what is your point exactly?" he asked dryly, proud that his voice didn't waver even though he knew his brother would never judge him.

"You sometimes, well, become really driven by the case," Frank said hesitantly. "So much so that you sometimes lose sight of the more important things."

"And what would be more important than putting criminals behind bars?" Joe asked heatedly. His eyes narrowed.

"See, that's exactly the thing," Frank hesitated again. "I can't really explain it. Look, just forget it okay? I'm sorry I ever brought it up. Just don't be too hard on yourself with Rachel, okay?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about so I'll just ignore that whole conversation," Joe said indifferently. He picked up a random magazine and began to leaf through it, feigning unconcern.

Frank sighed and went back to his reading. "Sorry," he muttered. He knew one thing; no matter how much he tried to drill it into Joe's skull, it wouldn't make a smidgen of difference until Joe truly understood what he was trying to get across by living it firsthand.

A good thirty minutes later, Callie and Vanessa made their way back to Frank and Joe. "Ready to go boys? We're just about done," Vanessa said.

"Definitely," Joe said, jumping up from his chair.

"Where's Rachel?" Frank asked.

"She was allergic to the perfume or something," Callie replied. "She stepped outside. Wait, she should probably have been back by this time."

"She probably just went to the bathroom," Vanessa added, not quite sounding convinced. "Can you guys check outside? Callie and I will check the bathroom."

Five minutes later, Frank, Joe, Callie, and Vanessa met just outside the door having all reached the same conclusion.

"Rachel's missing," Joe announced gravely, his voice ringing grimly in the silence.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The first thing Rachel was aware of was her aching head. She let out an instinctive muffled moan against a rag tied around her mouth as feeling came back to her. Her head was pounding and she was incredibly sore all over.

The last thing Rachel remembered was sneezing at the different perfumes interspersed in the air while she, Vanessa, and Callie were shopping. She vaguely remembered stepping outside to get some fresh air but everything after that was hazy.

Now all she could think about was being cold. She'd left her jacket… somewhere. That was another thing she couldn't remember. Fear began to rise in her as she pictured herself freezing to death along with the all the other ways to die, all alone, in… this place. Rachel looked around, taking in her surroundings. Surprisingly, it looked exactly like in the movies. She was in an old warehouse, tied to a chair that, in turn, was tied to what she presumed was a post.

A scuffling sound directed her attention to a man dressed in a dark jacket, dark blue jeans and work boots, making his way over to her around the stacked boxes that filled the warehouse. "Well, well, look who's back with us," he said with a threatening grin, looking into wide, frightened green eyes. "Hey Brian, she's awake," he called over his shoulder, not noticing that a looming shadow behind him was closer than he thought.

"You don't have to yell, Mikey," a gruff voice answered. "I'm right behind you."

"Oh, sorry," Mike apologized.

As Brian came closer, Rachel let out a muffled gasp at a large scar running down the left side of his face. "Yes, I always have that effect on people," he said with a dark and humorless gravelly chuckle. "I try not to take offense."

"What do you mean, you always get all mad and standoffish whe-" Mike broke off as Brian slowly turned to face him. "Never mind."

As Brian turned back to Rachel, light streaming through the windows lit up the raised skin, casting a shadow across his face that made him look absolutely menacing. "So Rachel, where is it?" he suddenly asked harshly.

Taken aback, Rachel just stared at him in terror. "Oh right, maybe this will help." With a quick movement, Brian ripped off the rag that had been preventing Rachel from speaking. Rachel let out a choking shriek. "Now speak," Brian commanded. "Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Rachel whispered hoarsely, wincing at the burning of her throat and fighting the need to cough. They had probably used chloroform to render her unconscious so they could bring her here.

"You know what. We know you have it so just tell us where it is and maybe we'll let you go without hurting you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel said fearfully.

"The diamond!" Brian shouted suddenly, causing Rachel to flinch away. "Don't play dumb, tell us where the diamond is! We know everything about you and Julia so don't bother trying to lie."

Rachel froze at the information. "What?" she asked, her tiny voice shaking in shock.

"You heard me," Brian said angrily. "Or did you sell it already?"

"Did Julia tell you where the rest are?" Mike added his own question.

"And how much do the Hardys know?" Brian queried.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel stammered, bowled over by what the thugs were implying.

"Sure you do. Don't tell me Julia didn't tell you about the diamond. What, did big sis take the diamond and take off?" Brian taunted.

"N-no," Rachel felt tears brimming in her eyes but didn't let them fall. "Julia didn't tell me anything."

"Oh really?" Mike scoffed. "Why wouldn't she tell you anything?"

"I don't know," Rachel said, her voice rising in indignant anger. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about and I don't know how you know about Julia."

Rachel wondered frantically if she should tell them about the diamond she'd found. Maybe then they'd leave her alone. But Julia had something to do with this… she needed more information. But if she waited too long and then decided to tell them about the diamond, they might think that she was holding back all the information.

In truth, all she knew about was where the diamond was. So would it be smarter to just tell them that the Hardys had it? But then that would mean the Hardys would be in even more danger. She couldn't do that. They'd gotten hurt enough because of her.

"Sounds like there's a lot you don't know, sweetheart, but how do we know you're telling the truth?" Brian asked in a dangerously saccharine but raspy tone.

"I don't know," Rachel repeated. "All I know is that I found a diamond and I got rid of it as soon as I could because all it seemed to do was cause trouble. That's all I know, really."

Mike's head snapped to her at the words. "What do you mean, got rid of it?"

"Did you sell it?" Brian's eyes tracked her expression keenly.

"No, I turned it in to the police," Rachel said. It was mostly true. Fenton Hardy was a private investigator who used to work for the police. Close enough.

An ominous silence filled the air for a long moment. "You what?" Brian questioned. His tone was deceptively calm, as if they were having a normal conversation over tea.

Mike's voice came back to him too. "You gave it to the police?" he repeated, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Yeah," Rachel said softly, her eyes darting from Brian to Mike and then back again. She didn't know what their reactions were going to be.

"Why would you do that?" Mike asked in wonder. The man couldn't seem to fathom anything but getting money.

"And what did the police do with it?" Brian ignored his cohort and continued to control his tone.

Rachel shrank back as much as she could. Brian was obviously volatile and who knew what would happen when he wasn't as calm as he seemed? Images played across her eyes. Men calm one second, angry the next. As Julia's wisdom and Rachel's own life experiences had proven, all men dealt with their anger the same way. The tears that had subsided came back, more insistent to fall this time.

"They just took it. They didn't tell me anything." Desperately wanting to know what Julia had been involved in, Rachel finally asked the question she'd wanted to ask. "What exactly was Julia doing with you guys and how did she get the diamond?"

Mike and Brian exchanged glances. "We might as well tell her, Julia's dead. It's not like she's going to tell on us now," Mike commented.

"How do we know if we let her go she isn't going to run back to the police and repeat everything we say?" Brian asked Mike.

"Because Jul-" Mike broke off as he thought. "You're right."

"Well, if she's really telling the truth about giving the diamond to the police and not knowing about what Julia did, we really have no more use for her," Brian mused, deep in thought. Rachel's jaw dropped silently as she thought of the implications behind Brian's words.

One lone tear made its way down her cheek, unnoticed by the two thugs who were lost in thought themselves.

Frank knocked on Joe's bedroom door for once, instead of barging in like he and Joe always did, before pushing it open at the lack of response. "Joe?" he called. The lump the comforter made on Joe's bed seemed flatter than usual but Frank was always surprised how Joe always seemed to compress himself so that he was completely hidden by his comforter except for perhaps a foot or tuft of his hair.

There was absolutely no response to his summons. Of course, this wasn't unheard of so Frank pulled down the covers gently. To his surprise, Joe wasn't there. Leaving his brother's room, he proceeded to the bathroom. No Joe.

"Mom?" he called as he went down the stairs. "Have you seen Joe?"

"He's in the basement, honey," Laura called in reply from the kitchen. "He grabbed a bagel and has been down there since he got up."

"Oh," Frank said in surprise. "It's only nine-thirty." Muttering to himself about blue moons, he went back up the stairs to his closet where he grabbed a sweatshirt and then made his way down the stairs, pulling it over his head along the way. He knew that the basementcould get very cold, especially in the winter.

With the help of their father and reward money given to them from solving various cases, Frank and Joe had converted their basementinto a laboratory that was equipped with technology to help solve their mysteries. It included some very state of the art tools and gadgets.

Frank pulled the door to the basement open slowly, feeling cautious. As he realized he was half-tiptoeing in his socks, he felt a surge of foolishness at himself. "Joe?" he called.

Joe's blonde head popped up from behind a large scanner that was set up on a table behind a covered microscope. He was dressed in a powder blue sweatshirt, gray sweatpants with "Bayport" printed down the leg, and was wearing a pair of loafers on bare feet. "There you are, finally," he greeted, sparing his brother a cursory glance. "Are you gonna help or just stand there?" he asked as Frank continued to gape at him. "What?"

"You do know that it's only like nine-thirty, right?" Frank asked. He pulled a stool over to where Joe was flipping through a thick book and took a seat.

"I couldn't sleep," Joe replied. "So I thought I'd start without you." He stole a quick glance at his brother, who was wearing his patented concerned expression, complete with creased brows and that little thing he did with his eyes. Joe mentally rolled his eyes. You'd think that it was snowing on Mars. He appreciated Frank's concern but he was fine; he just wanted to solve the case and have Rachel safe again. Why did Frank have to keep blowing everything out of proportion? So to alleviate his brother's worry, he added under his breath, "lazy butt." Joe went back to flipping through the book to find the right page. He watched his brother's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

"What did you say?" Frank asked, tension leaving his face. He raised an eyebrow. "Did you just call me lazy?" he continued, humor coloring his tone.

"Oh, of course not," Joe replied, adding a comment about his brother's "old" age under his breath again. He turned away to hide the grin that was spreading across his face.

"Joe, I heard you," Frank said mock angrily, enjoying the way his brother's eyes danced and the azure depths shimmered. It took attention away from the shadows under his eyes from not sleeping well. "Anyway, what have you got?" he asked, referring to the tire treads that Joe was analyzing.

After they'd discovered Rachel's disappearance, Frank and Joe with the help of Callie and Vanessa had spent a good twenty minutes looking for clues as to what exactly had happened and how she had been taken. Luckily, in a patch of mud, they'd found a print of a set of tires near where Rachel had been before she'd been taken. It was the only clue they had now and their fingers were crossed that the vehicle that had taken Rachel had actually made the tracks.

"See for yourself," Joe replied, indicating the image of the tread he'd taken with Vanessa's digital camera the day before displayed on the large screened computer. "I haven't looked at the stuff we found in the mud yet." He was referring to a reddish substance they'd found inside the tread that had gotten stuck in the mud.

"I'll start on that then," Frank determined. Joe waved his hand toward the plastic bag filled with the little amount of chalky substance.

Soon after, when they didn't get results, the brothers switched jobs. They did this often when each job needed a new set of eyes. It proved very helpful and was one of the benefits of working together as partners.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The warehouse was quiet. Quiet save for the noises. Noises that old abandoned warehouses make. Creaks and scuffles.

Rachel felt numb and lifeless. The thumping of her heart felt like it wasn't a part of her; like it was held separate from her body. One thought kept scrolling through her head.

"_This can't be happening to me. This isn't real."_

Frank ended his phone call to the nearest auto repair shop at the same time Joe finished his own call to a different professional, whom the Hardys usually called for information regarding types of vehicles. Both brothers shook their heads in an unnecessary gesture as each finished their call; their twin expressions said it all.

"All I learned was that we were right," Joe said dejectedly. "It's definitely a pickup truck. Probably a Ford. But those are too popular to be able to distinguish one from another."

"Yeah, and even though it seems to be a fairly new tire, we can't come to a conclusion about the truck itself," Frank added.

"Well, at least we have one more clue," Joe pointed out. "The reddish stuff in the tread."

"So far we've distinguished what it is but we still don't know where it came from. Hmm, actually I have an idea of where we can go for more information. I have another contact that we can talk to. But we have to go there because I don't have his number," Frank brought up.

"Okay, I'll go grab the sample and then we can start driving." Joe moved quickly to lope down the stairs to get the sample. Doing anything was better than doing nothing.

Frank nodded in agreement and rose to grab an extra jacket to wear over the sweatshirt he was already wearing. It was getting colder and colder as the days went by. Poor Rachel. Hopefully she was okay and wasn't freezing to death somewhere.

As he patted the pockets of his jeans to make sure his keys were present, Frank heard the sound of shattering glass and his brother shout his name.

Erica tiptoed through the warehouse, trying to make her footfalls as light as possible but they still echoed slightly in the stillness. It shouldn't have been that hard to stay quiet because standing at five feet and two inches and only weighing around one hundred pounds, Erica was pretty small. She flipped her head from side to side at each noise she heard, sending her shoulder length blonde hair flipping back and forth.

Finally, she saw the sight that she'd been looking for. She gasped at the image, startling Rachel, who hadn't heard her arrive.

"Oh my god, they didn't," she said, her eyes wide as she stared at the bound and gagged Rachel. "They didn't," she repeated again to herself. "Are you okay?" She directed her question to Rachel hesitantly, fearfully taking a tiny step forward and then skipping back again. She was light on her feet but jittery and Rachel watched her warily. "Oh, I suppose you can't talk because of the gag." Erica moved closer to Rachel and extended her arm to pull off the gag.

"Leave her be." The voice seemed to come out of nowhere and both Erica and Rachel jumped. Erica let out a startled squeak.

As the figure became more visible in the darkness of the warehouse, Erica let out a long sigh and pressed her hand to her pounding heart. "This place is so creepy," she commented.

"Then it serves its purpose," Brian replied flatly. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't believe you did this!" Erica exclaimed, remembering what she had been doing before Brian had startled her. "You really kidnapped her!"

"How did you know about her?" Brian asked coldly.

Watching Brian and Erica's interaction, Rachel felt as if she was a third person watching from the background. She couldn't make herself believe that they were actually talking about her.

"I heard you talking to someone on the phone but really, how could you do this?" Erica's tone rose in pitch.

"We need information from her."

"But did you have to _kidnap_ her?"

"This is none of your concern."

"It is my concern if you're going around kidnapping people!" Erica exclaimed. "Why don't you let her go?"

Rachel watched the exchange, half grateful that somebody was on her side and half worried for Erica. Who knew what Brian would do if she kept arguing?

"We would let her go if she could just tell us what we need to know," Brian explained. "But until she remembers, she ain't going anywhere."

Rachel internally groaned. She felt like bashing her head against a brick wall. She wasn't getting anywhere with Brian; he still seemed to believe that she knew more than she was telling. What was she going to do?

"C'mon, let's get out of here," Brian said to Erica, directing her away from Rachel.

"Wait, are you just going to leave her here?" Erica asked in surprise. "Did you give her food or water or anything?" Brian didn't answer but stood and gazed at her impassively. "Well, you need to keep her hydrated. Do you want to kill her?" Both Rachel and Erica herself winced at the choice of words.

Brian let out a dry chuckle at the pained looks on Rachel and Erica's faces. "That can be arranged," he said in his sardonic tone. Rachel found herself shivering again despite herself. "Now I trust you can handle giving her some water. But you'd better not do anything else," Brian warned Erica.

Shaking her head, Erica didn't reply immediately but when Brian roughly grabbed her arm and told her again, she was grudgingly nodding. Despite the demeanor she showed to Brian, the whole experience had extremely frightened her. Brian would never actually hurt the girl… would he? Erica glanced down to where she was unconsciously rubbing her arm. He _was_ capable of it…


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Joe!" Frank shouted back as he rushed down the stairs and into the basement. He found his brother grappling with a masked intruder near a broken window. Frank deduced that the prowler had squeezed in through the basement window after breaking it, judging from the position of the broken glass.

Before he could give Joe a hand, Frank watched the intruder throw a fast right hook that sent Joe hurling toward Frank. And before he could change his path, Frank found himself knocked to the ground by his brother's body. "Ugh," he grunted as his far from lightweight brother knocked the wind out of him.

Joe watched the intruder make his hasty retreat after stuffing a bag that looked suspiciously familiar into his pocket and scrambling back out the window. "Argh," he growled in helpless frustration, his chest heaving in the effort to regain his breath. It had been taken away by the punch to the stomach he'd received before the right hook.

"You okay?" Frank asked. He lay back in his attempt to get his own wind back, feeling Joe shift above him as he moved.

"Think so," Joe replied. He began moving himself off his brother so Frank could get up.

"Good. Then get off me," Frank grunted as Joe eased himself up, jabbing his brother in the process. "Ow, your elbow's in my stomach."

"Sorry," Joe apologized, shakily pulling himself to stand. "I'm glad I had my shoes on," he commented, studying the glass. "And I'm glad you were wearing your jacket. Extra protection." He extended a hand to help his brother up.

"For you maybe," Frank shot back with no heat in his tone. "You're lucky I happened to come along when I did."

"Yup, you're the perfect landing pillow," Joe joked. "Nice and cushiony."

"What was that?" Frank wondered. "That completely came out of nowhere."

"Ugh, whoever it was took the dirt. Now we don't have anything for comparison to what we find. Did you take a photo of it?"

"We still have the original photos… or not," Frank indicated the table where the printouts had been. "Looks like he got those too."

"Well, we know what they were. How do you think he knew about the evidence?" Joe wondered.

"I dunno, maybe they were watching us or something."

Joe sighed. "Great."

"We'd better take care of the glass and tape up the window before Mom comes back," Frank commented.

"I'll go get the broom and tape. It's getting cold in here already because of the wind."

Rachel gulped down the bottle of water that Erica offered her in three huge swallows. She then proceeded to scarf down the sandwich that Erica had also brought, making sure to catch all the crumbs.

"I'm sorry," Erica found herself apologizing as she watched Rachel eat hungrily. "I'm so sorry," she repeated, this time more quietly. She felt guilty for not freeing this innocent girl who was even younger than herself. Erica had no idea how she would handle this situation in the girl's shoes.

Now that her hunger needs were momentarily satisfied, Rachel took note of her surroundings and the fact that Erica was her only companion in the large warehouse. "Where's Brian?" Rachel queried, feeling an involuntary shiver as she spoke her captor's name aloud. It didn't go unnoticed by Erica, who felt her guilt weigh even heavier in her chest.

"I don't know. Not anywhere around here. He said he had some "business" to take care of," Erica replied.

"Then…" Rachel let her voice trail off, looking up at Erica with pleading eyes.

Erica felt like bursting into tears. She couldn't… could she?

"I can't, I'm sorry," she said again. "Luke and Mike are just outside the door standing watch. And even if Mike's not that bad in some respects, you don't want to cross Luke."

Despite her words, Rachel could still hear a wavering note in Erica's voice. Erica was struggling with her conscience and some other factor that Rachel had no idea about. Why couldn't Erica just help her sneak away? It was obvious that she didn't like what her "friends" were doing. So Rachel bluntly decided to find out.

"Why not?"

There wasn't anger in Erica's eyes, just a confused indecision. She opened her mouth to speak once and then shut it again as she tried to find the right words. "I'm afraid," she finally said softly. "Of… Brian. And the guys too but especially Brian. I don't want to make him angry," Erica explained quietly, looking around to make sure that she wasn't overheard.

"But couldn't you just get away from them?" Rachel implored. "You're not going to stay with them after this, are you?"

"I have no choice," Erica said unhappily.

"Why? Why do you even care about Brian?"

"Because he's my half brother," Erica explained, searching Rachel's eyes to see if she would understand. "I don't have any other family at all."

"Oh," Rachel said. She looked up to meet Erica's eyes and between the two girls, an understanding formed that bonded them together.

Rachel too clearly understood the yearning for family. She herself had tried to help her father over and over, hoping that each time would be the last and he would get his act together. She'd kept making excuses for family members. That's what her mother must have felt. Rachel felt the understanding emerging and the raw emotion that was hidden in the depths of Erica's hazel-green eyes. They reminded her of her sister's…

"So what do you do when you're not talking to people kidnapped by your half-brother?" Rachel asked jokingly, shocking herself with the touch of humor in this dire situation.

"Brian," Erica corrected, shuddering slightly. "It's really hard to think of him as sharing the same blood as me."

"How did you end up helping him?" Rachel wondered.

"I need the money," Erica said simply. "I messed up a couple times in my life and now it's too late to go back and change things. I need Brian's help and the money."

Rachel sat in silence at the explanation. That must have been the reason why Julia had been helping Brian and his cronies. Money. The realization sent a shock through her even though all the clues had been in front of her all along.

All she had needed was someone just like her sister explaining them. Yet another girl who was forced to resort to criminal means… just to have money. And that's why Julia had stolen the diamond; she was going to sell it and get away from the smuggling ring. That's what she had meant in that conversation they'd had…

"What about you?" Erica asked, getting the focus off her own life. "How did you end up here?"

At the question, something in Erica's eyes led Rachel to tell the entire truth. The truth about everything, starting off with her sister and ending up explaining about the Hardys helping her find Julia's killer.

"And these two guys are just helping you without asking for anything in return? No payment or anything?" Erica asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, they're nice guys," Rachel said defensively. "They're amateur detectives so they take cases."

"But if they're detectives, wouldn't you need to pay them?"

"I… I don't know," Rachel said uncertainly, remembering yet again that the Hardys were too perfect to be real. "They never mentioned anything in return…" her voice trailed off worriedly. "They have these amazing parents, money, and they're so nice…" What she didn't say to finish her sentence was what both she and Erica were thinking internally.

_There must be something wrong with them._


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"… need to kill her."

"How … do it?"

"… unfortunate accident… here… take… somewhere else."

"... absolutely necessary… kill her…."

Erica stopped in her tracks so quickly she almost tripped over her own feet. She was on her way to talk to Brian and the guys but what she heard of their conversation caused her to stop and listen behind the partly closed door.

"Couldn't we hold her ransom or something?" Mike's voice questioned. "We could make some money off her."

Brian snorted. "Yeah, right. Nobody cares about her; she doesn't have anybody to pay the ransom. Besides, she knows too much now. We just have to keep this clean. We kill her and all the evidence is gone."

"What about the diamond?" Mike persisted. "We still haven't found it yet."

"She's not talking so we might as well forget about it and move on," Brian said, surprising Erica. She would have thought that he'd care more about the money aspect, like Mike did. All Mike cared about was the money. Of course, it was the most important part of the smuggling to her too.

But then she remembered what he was proposing to "forget" and "move on" from. And the realization almost buckled her knees.

Visibly trembling, she took a few steps away from the men and then broke into a fearful, uneven run to get away from the place and to save Rachel before it was too late.

Three Hours Later:

Erica was sitting in the Hardys' living room, stumbling over her words in her haste to get her point across. When she'd snuck back to the warehouse, Brian and Luke were already there too close to Rachel's vicinity for Erica's comfort. Now it was too late for her to free Rachel.

There was only one more possible option. It had come up when she and Rachel had been swapping life stories. So for lack of a better alternative, she had found herself driving over to the Hardys' address on the corner of Elm and High Streets in Bayport to beg for help. She could also actually meet them and see if all that Rachel had claimed about them was true. Not that that mattered right now.

"Are you absolutely sure of what you heard?" Joe asked. His piercing electric blue eyes were intense as he studied Erica and she had the feeling that he was x-raying her. Erica felt her self-consciousness return, feeling that she'd made a huge error in judgment for just not helping Rachel escape as soon as she had met her. Then she wouldn't have to go through all of this. But she would have a bigger problem on her hands then - how to hide from Brian.

"Yes, it was crystal clear," she answered Joe.

"Do you know when they were planning to… well, do it?" Frank cut in.

"No, but I know they're going to do it soon," Erica said frantically.

"Look, just calm down. We'll handle this," Joe said, drawn out of his planning when he heard the frenetic note in Erica's voice. He softened his gaze and put his hand on her shoulder, feeling the tensed muscles.

"You did the right thing by coming to us," Frank reassured.

"Yeah," Joe agreed distractedly, hunting in his pocket for his cell phone. He pressed a speed dial and began talking to his father while Frank led Erica to a computer.

"Can you show us on a map where Rachel is being held?" Frank asked, quickly opening up a mapping website.

"Yeah but I'm not sure if it's on the map. I can definitely show you the area though."

Four hours later, Joe was attired in black holding a taser in his hand. There was a steely glint in his eyes that startled Erica when he turned to look at her.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21 Epilogue

Christmas night found Rachel getting ready for bed in the guest room of the Hardy home. She sat down on the bed with a sigh. She was officially exhausted. The past weeks had been incredibly eventful and had altered her life so much. There was the whole diamond mystery, the Hardys, and now recently her dad. She needed time to reflect upon it all before her life started moving too quickly again.

So Julia had been wrong, Rachel thought wistfully. The Hardys were surprisingly "perfect" in so many ways. But there was one thing, Rachel realized, her sister had been completely truthful about. All Julia had wanted was to give her a good life. And that was because she loved her. If only Rachel had listened to her and done more… said those three words every once in a while…

But there was no time to dwell on that now. She would have time throughout the rest of her life but maybe now she could work on making her sister and mother proud. Maybe they were somewhere together looking down on Rachel. Anyway, the first step was her father.

Rachel took a deep breath and let it out. Life was moving so fast that she didn't even have time to breathe. Zoning out as she stared at the pattern of the bedspread, she thought about the call that she'd received on Christmas day.

"_Hello? Rachel?" a male voice asked, his tone a bit uncertain and very familiar. Except this time, it wasn't angry or controlling but just… defeated and tired. _

"_Yeah," Rachel whispered. "Dad?"_

"_Yeah, Rachel, I'm so sorry," Mark apologized a bit awkwardly. "Look, it's a long story but I just need to tell you. I'm in rehab and I swear it's getting better. I'm coming home soon and I want us to move away from Bayport together. You know, start over new," he said hesitantly._

"_I… wow… this is… totally unexpected," Rachel finally said in shock. _

"_I know, I'm sorry," Mark apologized again. "But I wanted to wait until I was really making progress. And I am, I promise Rach. There were some rough spots but it's all going to be okay now. You're not at home, are you? I tried the home phone and it didn't work."_

"_It was discontinued," Rachel replied. "There wasn't really any need for it. I'm at a friend's house right now."_

"_That's good," Mark commented. Rachel couldn't read his tone. But then again, it felt like both of them had changed a lot since they'd last spoken._

"_What changed?" Rachel asked. It was a question that she absolutely needed the answer to. Was her father trustable now or would it just be the same as always? __His tone seemed to indicate he was asking for forgiveness.__ But could it all just be an act? Maybe he just needed somebody to take the place of her mother or Julia._

"_A lot has happened," Mark said, sensing that this was the most important question and that he needed to answer it right. He took his time, searching for the right words. "I guess it kind of started when I had an alcohol poisoning accident. I was in the hospital for a while and then my friend put me into the program. But I was still in denial so I wasn't following the rules. It was kind of a joke to me. But then I was driving drunk…" Mark paused before continuing. _

"_Anyway, that same day, another of my friends killed my best friend while he was driving drunk in another car." __e He skutlsjdflskdjf__He took a shuddering breath and Rachel was certain that he was telling the truth. "Their car just missed mine and I watched them die," Mark finished faintly._

"_I'm sorry," Rachel said softly._

"_No, you shouldn't be the one who's sorry. It's entirely my fault." There was no self-pity in Mark's voice. "Anyway, things have changed and I want to make a fresh start. With you… you know, if you want to."_

"_Of course I do, you're my dad. I think it's going to work," Rachel said. And there was no reason to think so other than Mark's voice. But there was something in the air, something in the Hardy home, some gut feeling that Rachel was feeling deep inside. She'd never be able to explain it but it was there. _

_One thing she'd learned from the entire ordeal was to trust her instincts. It was better than regretting it for the rest of her existence._

Now that the whole Julia mystery thing was over and her killers had met justice, Rachel knew she had to move on. Even though her life was in a way even emptier than before, she had a father who was going to try for her and friends she could call at any time, as they assured her when she told them she'd be moving away from Bayport.

Rather than feel disappointed at having to move away just when she'd made friends, she was grateful for the second chance and the new chances she was going to have. Besides, her big house and the whole town contained too many memories. Some good, mostly bad but all of them were lingering over her soul. There was no way she and her father could move on without moving away.

Joe joined his brother at the sink of the brothers' shared bathroom to brush his teeth. "So that was fun, a nice change," he commented, grabbing his blue toothbrush.

"Yeah, it's a change from spending holidays with the family." Frank concurred.

"Uh-huh," Joe agreed absentmindedly, looking at his reflection in the mirror. So much had changed, yet it was all still the same. He didn't _look_ different in any way but he _felt_ different.

"Hey, you okay?" Frank asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, just thinking about the past couple days," Joe replied, squeezing toothpaste onto his brush.

"Yeah, pretty eventful," Frank agreed. "And how great is it that Rachel's dad is coming back and getting better?"

"Very cool, I'm really glad for her. Hopefully she can get past what happened and move on." Frank knew his brother wasn't only talking about just the incident with the diamonds.

"Too bad that she's moving out of Bayport."

"Nah, I think it's going to be good for her. Get a fresh start and everything. She looks like a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders. And she seems so much more… alive," Joe said, remembering that moment right after he'd saved her. In a way, they'd turned her life around.

"I know what you mean," Frank agreed. "I'm just glad you got there in time. I hope that girl, Erica, was that her name? I hope she's going to be okay too. Rachel said that she was only helping the guys with the smuggling because the leader was her half brother. It really stinks that some people have to be roped into these kinds of things."

"Yeah, they're behind bars so they won't be hurting anyone or smuggling anytime soon," Joe said.

"What's wrong? You don't sound too happy," Frank observed. "A couple days ago, all you could think about was getting revenge."

"Well… I guess that it's just not really that important," Joe said. "Today just reminded me of that. We helped Rachel and Erica along the way and that's really all that matters." He placed his toothbrush into his mouth and began to brush. As he looked up, he caught his brother's bemused reflection in the mirror behind him.

"I was getting worried about you for a while there, bro," Frank finally said. It was all he said but there was a look on his face that conveyed much more than his words.

Joe looked quizzically at his brother's expression. It wasn't amusement, it was more… pride? Joe remembered that look; it was the one Frank had given him when his team had won the Little League baseball title, the one that he'd received when he'd given his prize to the little girl at the amusement park who absolutely loved the stuffed puppy but couldn't get the basketball into the hoop three times. And it had also been plastered all over Frank's face when Joe hadn't given up on Rachel.

The next day, Rachel had packed her bags and was finally ready to leave this chapter of her life in Bayport behind. The Hardy family (except Fenton), Vanessa, and Callie were present to see her off with her father.

"Good luck, Rachel," Callie said with an encouraging smile.

"We can always keep in touch online," Vanessa added.

"We'll visit you when we're down there," Frank put in.

When it was Joe's turn to say goodbye, everyone took a few steps back so that it felt to Rachel that it was only her and Joe who existed in the world at the moment.

"So, I'll hopefully see you soon," Joe said softly.

"Joe, thank you," Rachel started, her eyes locked onto Joe's. "I… I don't even know what to say because you've done so much more than "thank you.""

"Don't worry about it," Joe said with a smile. "I'm just glad we got there in time and we put Julia's killers behind bars. Dad's really grateful too; he's been trying to find that smuggling ring for a while now." After another long look, Joe impulsively reached over to hug her. Her discomfort at human contact was forgotten and he wrapped his arms around her.

For a moment, he felt her completely tense up but then she slowly relaxed her muscles and was soon returning the hug. Rachel's knees almost buckled in surprise at herself.

Joe felt a surge of protectiveness that quickly faded after he and Rachel stepped away from each other.

From where she was standing, Vanessa didn't even feel a touch of jealously.

Again, Rachel exchanged goodbyes with everyone before climbing into the passenger seat of her father's car.

"You know, you completely changed her life," Vanessa said softly into Joe's ear as they watched Rachel's dad pull out of the driveway. "I'm proud of you," she whispered. Joe just drew her in tighter, grateful for the people surrounding him in the driveway.

He remembered the day he'd helped Vanessa and knew he'd remember the look on Rachel's face forever, just like he still remembered Vanessa's. They had also been able to give Erica a new start at a new job that Fenton had set up for her. Much was good in the world.

_There couldn't have been a better job match than a detective for Joe Hardy. _

_There was the thrill of adventure which would keep him satiated and cure the restlessness he would have if he worked behind a desk or was forced to have the same routine every day. _

_And most importantly, he would be helping people, even saving their lives. _

The End… of the "beginning"…


End file.
